Tea Anyone?

This is my take on a card I saw on the Rubber Stamp Tapestry tutorial and idea page.  I used several of the tea peg stamps to compose sheets of stamped images and then cut those to 1.5" with a punch.  I wanted to align the images properly so I made a guide frame for placement using my Cricut Explore.  Very helpful!  I used this card as a get well card, inserting a tea bag into a vellum pocket I made for the inside of the card.  Also, I hope to have a tea party again one of these days and this card will make a perfect invitation.  Thank you, Rubber Stamp Tapestry!  I love my peg stamps!  Oh, did I mention?  Purple is my favorite color!

Cardmaking Remix!

Well, I don't know about a "remix"  but I did spend some time making some cards that are repeats from some years ago.    Here's a pic:

 Both cards are made from older, retired Hero Arts shadow stamps, and both are ideas I got from Hero Arts.  I love my stamps, new or old!  I stamped the birthday card in a blue Clearsnap chalk ink three times and then punched, cut, and layered to get the look.  And to think I almost sold that tag punch is a garage sale!  The paper is from an older Hero Arts/Basic Grey 6" x 6" paper stack.  The card on the right was made from basic cardstock and stamping.  I stamped the dots background in a Ranger orange dye ink and the orange stripe was stamped with Clearsnap orange pigment ink.  The little flower and the hello sentiment was stamped over the orange with a Black Memento dye pad.  A little bit of ribbon and I have some cute cards!  Thank you, Hero Arts, for your timeless images!  I hope to still get some mileage out of them!

Elmo's Birthday Pop Up Card

I needed a birthday card for a 2 year old.  Really?!!! What does a 2 year old want a card for, unless to eat it?  But I needed it, so I found this cute little file on Cricut Make It Now.  It is a design from a cartridge called "Sesame Street--Elmo's Party".

I just love Cricut Design Space!  I paid for just the images I need, rather than buy an entire cartridge I absolutely didn't need.  Don't you find that a lot of the images within a cartridge are really just repeated images?  So I purchased just the pieces I needed for this card, and thank you to whoever designed the card so I didn't have to!

But I did have to figure out how to put the pop up inside Elmo together, and that was a struggle.  No Thank You please to Cricut, who does not have an illustration or how-to guide for this.  After ruining two Elmos I thought I had it figured out, but as I looked over the meager directions in the Make It Now section, I realized I was missing something.  I googled "Elmo pop up Cricut card" and found a wonderful video of a lady making the Elmo Pop Up.  Here is her link, in case you want to make a Pop Up Elmo, too:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EErZBqyvr7c&list=PLV4sFhcxLIHLf9ORS9T1NYaYdGq5kWFvo&index=64

And here is my Elmo Pop Up:

Love it!  So bright and cheery for a little one, and maybe even a 2 year old will like the card, besides the taste of it!

Flowers made with heart!

I had so much fun this morning creating these cards!  And what a clever technique!  I had signed up for a class by Lisa Spangler on Big Picture Classes.  https://www.bigpictureclasses.com/  Lisa shows how you can make big flowers from small heart stamps!  I love this idea!  And to think I have already invested in so many large flower stamps that now hurt my hands to press!  I think these cards came out pretty well, despite the fact that they were my first attempts at this technique!  and they look like the flowers I made from Hero Arts large flower stamps that I pictured on the heading of my blog!

I used some older Hero Arts stamps to make these cards.  I have no idea what stamps I used because I have unmounted all my wood stamps and have them on cling mount.  The two cards at the left were stamped with the same bold heart stamp.  The only difference between them is the spacing.  I used a 1 1/8" circle to space out the larger flower, and I used a 1" circle to space the smaller flower.  I used Clearsnap Orchid Pastel chalk ink for both.  The smaller flower is actually stamped on the card front.  The larger flower I cut out and attached to a card front.  The accent papers were from Confetti Birthday pad from DCWV.  The stamped circle sentiment is from Paper Smooches Spiritual Sentiments stamp set.  Inside the card says,  "on your birthday and always" that I printed on the computer.

The card at the right used the hearts in an overlapping manner.  I stamped using a Clearsnap pink pigment pad and then cut out and colored the flower with water based markers.  The center of this flower is actually a fussy cut flower from another printed paper, from Magenta.   I  think the vintage papers I chose for the background (Hobby Lobby) complement the vintage colors I chose for the flower.

I had one teeny problem making these cards.  You see, I ran out of tape runner.  And I am loathe to buy more.  It is so expensive!  So I used a lot of glue to put these cards together, and I have to practice!  I got glue everywhere!  I am thankful for my Tombow Mono sand eraser that helped with erasing some of the most obvious glops.

Thank you, Lisa and Big Picture Classes for a fun technique!  I will have fun making some more cards!

Copy cat card

I saw a card recently on the Rubber Stamp Tapestry tutorial page that I just had to make!  I think I copied it almost exactly!  Here is the original project:  

http://ideas.pegstamps.com/2007/01/01/wild-berry-vine-in-blue-card/

What do you think?  I even had the cute little Stampin' Up pink and blue flowers for the embellishment!   Of course I am sure I used different stamps (don't even ask me what they were because my peg stamps are like all mixed together right now!  That means they are busy and in use, and that's a good thing!  Oh, I used my Cricut Explore to write and cut the greeting on my card, as well as cut the papers to the size needed.  I find my Explore really helpful in this respect, since I can use the finished card size as a template and then just load the pieces onto the template to get the right size for each piece.  No measuring!  I did use a scalloped punch for the pink scallop, however.

Sometimes, especially lately, when I seem to be in an artistic no man's land and can't come up with my own designs to save my life, I love to go through the blogs and look and see what other people have done and copy their ideas.  They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!  I think if people are so possessive of their ideas that they don't want them copied they shouldn't post them online anyway.  That's my take, anyway!  And I always learn something from copying someone else's ideas, in addition to coming up with a finished card I can share with the world.  I made four or five of these cards and will send them to shut-ins and others who will really enjoy them.

Colorful Birthdays!

Those of you with January and February birthdays will know I am a little behind in my birthday card making!  I may have caught up!  Take a look at these colorful creations!  They are made with the Richard Garay 3D embossing folders I saw on a blog post from Laura Bassen for Simon Says Stamp.  I was so taken with the images I had to search high and low for them, since they are a discontinued product from Spellbinder's.  This rosette embossing folder was part of set released by Spellbinder's some years ago as part of a birthday set of related images, including stamps and papers.  I also found the two other embossing folders in the set online and will post my creations made from them in future.  Here is a link to the Laura Bassen video that showcases how she colored these images.  Her video was my inspiration for these cards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgiyVwvh5h4&index=57&list=PLV4sFhcxLIHLf9ORS9T1NYaYdGq5kWFvo

I used Distress Inks for most of the coloring, but also used Tombow and Copic markers for some of the brighter images.  I found that using a heavier weight paper really helped the images pop, and for these I actually used a glossy cover stock I have had for some time.  The glossy paper really holds the ink.

Aren't these fun!!  I am so excited about my new 3D embossing folders!  I also got a leaf one from Sizzix and some from American Crafts that have geometric designs.  I think they will all make beautiful cards.

Happy Birthday, in case I missed yours this year.  Have fun stamping!

Sympathy card

Due to a series of unfortunate circumstances, I somehow suddenly needed a lot of sympathy cards.  I guess as I get older I will run into this problem from time to time, so I need to be prepared.

It seems the stamping world, at least as I see it online, is pretty much populated by a young clientele, who favor the cute and whimsical.  Cute and whimsical has never really been my style, probably due to my mature years, but even when I was much younger I preferred nature imagery and clever design to fairy tale and cartoon imagery.  This is especially true when choosing images for sympathy cards.

Luckily, I rarely get rid of my older stamp sets, tools, or materials.  So I found a dated Stampin' Up sympathy stamp set in my stash and set to work.

I first stamped the lilies in black ink on white, and then promptly discarded those as not really suitable.  I then used gold ink and gold embossing powder, some on vellum, some on white card, and was pleased with the result.

I tried various ways to color the lilies white, and was not happy with anything I tried as a coloring medium.  I then picked up the black and white images I had previously stamped and cut out just the lily portions and mounted them behind the gold embossed images on the vellum.  I had colored the leaves green on the backside of the vellum.  The white of the stamped paper really showed up and the black stamped lines were well hidden by the gold embossing.  Voila!  That was my solution.

But now another problem ensued--what should be the backing behind the vellum stamped piece?  A plain card front really did nothing to show up the embossing.  I tried various printed papers and finally found a pretty piece that was gold foiled, but the piece was blue.  Blue behind my green and white lilies?  Not really.  So I got out my dated backgound stamps and found one that was highly detailed.  Again, gold ink and gold embossing powder were my friends.

The results are pictured above.  Just the right amount of elegance and minimal fuss to make a vehicle for a heartfelt message of sympathy.