Cozy Kitten Cards!

I saw a video online about these cute felt cat cards and really fell in love with them!   I have made several, and the ones you see above I think are the best.  I knew I bought that felt for a reason!  You never know what you are going to need!

I had been recently looking at the greeting cards at Target, and saw how so many of them use different sorts of embellishments, like felt for instance.  At the cost of these "designer" cards, I feel I have justified my die purchase in making just 4 or 5 of these cards.

And they would make great childrens' projects--after I cut the material with the dies that is.  I do not recommend these dies for use by children, but they would certainly have fun with the cut shapes.

This is the "Cat / Dog" die from Paper Smooches.  It can make a cat, a dog, a fox, an owl, a pig, and I am assured many other animals as well.  The dog one I made turned out OK, but not as cute as the cats.  Or maybe I am just partial to cats.

Here is a video to show how to use this die:   http://www.jennifermcguireink.com/2017/05/cardmaking-with-felt.html

And even better, I want to use my Cricut Explore to cut some felt shapes for my cards.  Here is a Lori Nunnemaker video that shows her process:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDsf13N2k4Y&t=335s
 
     She is making hairbows in the video, but you get the idea.  I have tried cutting felt in my Explore before, but not really successfully.  I have ordered the exact things she uses:  the green mat, the Heat and Bond Ultrahold, and I will give a report when my products arrive.  Cricut has so many cute shapes that would be spectacular cut with felt!

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!