Happy Father's Day

The kids in Children's Church made this cute tie card for Dad's Day this morning.  Even the littlest ones were able to make this, and the older ones really enjoyed making the card.  I saw the little ones making sure their cards were safely tucked in pockets to share with Dad when they got home (OK, maybe they were folded into their pockets, but it's the thought that counts!)  And hey, what are a few stamping smudges anyway?!

I had been looking at YouTube a lot lately for washi tape ideas, and one of the ideas was to use a cut-out to show off or display the underlying washi tape.  So I cut a tie shape from the center of a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of cardstock with my Cricut Explore, one for each card we would make.  We then folded an A2 card and layered stripes of washi tape diagonally onto the card front.  The over-laying tie-shaped cut-out hides all but the tie shape opening, and voila, we have a striped Dad's tie!  In other words, we are using the Cricut Explore to cut out a "punched" shape, but no annoying hard-to-work punches.

Some of the kids further decorated the cards with markers and messages of love.  I suggested they decorate the inside of the card with a hand drawn heart.

This craft idea tied in nicely with last week's lesson on love as the first fruit of the spirit.

Thanks for looking, and I hope you are having fun with washi tape as well!  Happy Dad's Day!

Konnichiwa!

Hello, everyone!  I am sharing a little card today I made from some new dies and some older stamps.  I needed to order from the Frantic Stamper (they seemed to be the only ones that had the stamp I wanted, not pictured here) and I saw their cute little Japanese girl die.  I love this die!  Here is the link:
  http://www.franticstamper.com/Frantic-Stamper-Precision-Die--Kokeshi-Japanese-Paper-Doll_p_139240.html

It's part of a release called "Visions of the East".  So cute!  And let me tell you more--Even though it is a thin metal die, you don't actually have to cut it apart to use it.  It is tiny, so you are not wasting much paper by cutting the whole die each time you need a section.  I really hate cutting off and filing all the poky metal parts on thin steel dies that are on the market.  I would rather pay more and have each part pre-cut, smooth, and ready to go.

For these cards, I cut the girls from white cardstock, black cardstock for their hair, and washi paper I have collected over the years.  The washi was a little more difficult to cut because it is fibrous--I had to use a shim to ensure clean cuts.  Oh, I used my Vagabond to cut these pieces.  After all pieces are cut, it is fun to mix and match hair and dress colors.  (Remember playing Color-Forms when you were little?!)

I placed the girls onto my new weaving die cuts, the one from Inky Antics (see my blog post about my graduation card, below).  For the card on the left, I used quilling papers to do the weaves, but I only had 1/8" thick quilling papers, so this was a lot of weaving!  For the card on the right, I cut 1/4" strips from pastel papers to do the weaving.  Much less stressful, and easier on my hands!

The parasol stamp was one from an older Hero Arts clear stamp set (no longer on the market) which I colored with Copic markers, and the sentiment I picked up at Hobby Lobby on sale some time ago.

Very much fun using these dies!  I think they could make cards for any occasions.

Looking 'round -- Are you here?

Here's lookin' at you kid!  I made the center card, pictured above, some time ago to use as a "missing you where have you been" card to send to my Children's Church kids that don't show up for a while.  I needed some more of these cards, not in pink (for boys) but I liked the design so I re-did in shades of orange and added an owl motif.  And I decided to augment the circle designs for each card with dimension.  I used a lot of circular "gem" rhinestones I had about and then went with my Ranger enamel accents for extra dimension.  I think the kids will really like these.  (Hopefully they won't in theory get one of these cards!)

The sunglasses images are cut from cardstock with my Cricut Explore.  The sunglasses image is available with the Cricut Access subscription (so handy--I never buy so-called cartridges).  The owl images and circles are cut with punches from scrapbook papers.  Such a fun design!  Oh, and I used metallic paper for the sunglasses lenses.

Thanks for looking!  When did you last play with your circle punches?  (I know you have them!)

Cookbookin'!

For this past Tuesday's art project, my group made 2 8" x 8" layouts for recipes.  And one of the recipes was mine--the cheese quiche, which the group had eaten at my house a couple of weeks ago.  Yummy!

Here is a pic of the layouts, designed by Carolyn:

So much fun!  And thanks, Carolyn, for these layouts and for keeping us organized!

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!

Cards for Kids

I recently purchased from Inky Antics because I love the novelty look of their images and embellishments.  Plus, the stamp sets make great kids cards.  So, above, you are looking at one of the cards I made.  I used the seal and sea lion set to make this fun birthday card which is embellished by a scratch off sticker.  Hence the penny!  This stamp set is part of the Scratch Off stamp sets designed to go with the Scratch Off stickers.  Totally fun!  I colored the images with Copic markers and added a few fun papers, making about 6 or 7 of these cards so I will have birthday cards for the kids at Children's Church.  One has already debuted and it was a hit!  I added some glossy accents to the beach ball for a bit of texture.

Here is another fun card:

Again, colored with Copics and a few bright papers.  Below, the inside:

This card set features elephant images and a 3d feature using HoneyPop paper, another fun item from Inky Antics.  There are a whole series of the these stamp sets geared toward using the honeycomb paper.  Very fun!  A little bit of washi tape and an applauding mouse from the stamp set complete the card.

I find the kids like the stamp sets that use puns, riddles, or an interactive feature of some sort.  I hope they like these amazing cards!

Using New Distress Oxides

Everyone who knows me knows Tuesday is my crafting day!  I get together with friends and make all sorts of fun things.  This week we played with the new Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks.  Yes, I know there are a million blog posts and videos showcasing this product, but now mine is added to the list.

We first focused on making backgrounds with the inks.  The tag to the left above is made with Bristol Board.  The tag to the right is a ready made manila tag (I may have used a white one.)  We smooshed the inks onto the craft mat, added water, then dragged our tags/papers through.  Heat set, then again in the ink.  Lovely results!  I can't tell you what colors I used because I don't remember, but you can probably guess from the colors in the picture because there are only 12 colors of these inks.

When the ink was dry, I used flourish stamps to overstamp in white pigment ink and then heat emboss with white powder.  Additional stamping, then added a cut out faux postage stamp (Hero Arts) that I colored with various media.

The secondary flourish on the card, to the right of the tag, is a Tim Holtz flourish die that I cut in white card then added the Nuvo embellishment mousse in turquise.  The cards are matted with scrap papers or previous stampings I had done.  Trying to use up stash!  Here's a pic of additional cards:

I have to say I am at the moment loving these Distress Oxide inks.  Lovely, lovely backgrounds.