Thinking of You

I've got another floral card for you today, this one using Close to My Heart stamps and some old Recollections card patterned cardstock.  It's a pretty basic card, with stamping, a little bit of masking, and some paper layering, but I really happy with how it turned out.

 

I'm entering this into the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, Fabulous Florals.

DeLIGHTful Birthday

One of the things I like so much about Your Next Stamp is their punny sentiments, such as the ones I used in this card from the Perfect Chemistry set.  I (mostly) followed the sketch laid out in their Sketch and Color Challenge #45 using random papers that I had lying around.  The card base is blue Recollections cardstock (that I have waaaaaaaay too much of, btw), which I spruced up with Catherine Pooler's Lattice Background stamp from the Lovely Notes Stamp of Approval box.

I colored the light bulb with my Prismacolors, and did a final coat of Wink of Stella.  Did you know that Wink of Stella takes a lot longer to dry if you put it on over colored pencil?  I suspect that if I hadn't used mineral spirits to blend my Prismacolors, it wouldn't have dried at all.  Anyway, that's pretty much my card.  If you haven't had a chance to check out Your Next Stamp's challenge, you should check it out now.

I'm entering this card in the Your Next Stamp Sketch and Color Challenge #45.

Let's Celebrate!

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge blog is having their 6th anniversary, so their theme this week is all about... Celebrating!  This card was designed using SSS's Birthday Celebration stamp set, which you can get for free around your birthday.  I stamped the elephant onto Canson XL watercolor paper and used my Zig markers to color it in.  By the way, the Canson XL watercolor paper is FANTASTIC for Zig markers, which is great, because it's fairly inexpensive.  I then die cut around the elephant using journaling card sized die from Mama Elephant's Peek a Frame set.

I cut a piece of blue Michael's cardstock using the postage stamp die from the same set.  I stamped celebrate from the same SSS stamp set multiple times on a diagonal in Versamark ink and embossed using Wow! Clear Hologram Sparkle Embossing Glitter.  I then mounted my elephant panel onto this one using fun foam.  I mounted the works onto some Michael's 120lb card stock and added the celebrate sentiment to the top on a strip of black paper with white embossing powder.  I sparkled up the card with Wink of Stella and Glossy Accents on the balloon and the hat.  And done!

I swear that it sounds a lot more complicated that it actually was.  This card was very easy to make, but I love the way it came out!

I'm submitting this to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge blog challenge here.

Everything Grows with Love

I've wanted to try no line coloring for a while now, but I wanted to do it using colored pencils.  So tonight, I hauled out my Prisma Colored pencils and the Flower Trio stamp from Hero Arts.  I stamped the card onto some light blue card stock with Whisper ink from Close to my Heart.  I then colored the flowers using m colored pencils.  The Flower Trio stamp was great because it already had the dark and the light areas marked off (though I didn't follow this completely).  I colored the flowers AND the background, and also drew in some leaves at the bottom.

I finished the card by putting some iridescent paint through the Simon Says Stamp Falling Snow stencil, which added a great shimmer and texture to the card base.  The sentiment is from Close to my Heart, from a set that called Stuck on You that I believe is no longer available.  I gave some dimension to my card using blue fun foam.  Yes, blue.  I'm all out of white, and I'm ok with that lol.

I'm entering this card in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog: Fabulous Florals

Piles of Smiles - Redux

I realized that I don't use my stamps enough, so I thought I'd create a card using a stamp set that I've used before (because, really, we spend so much for a stamp set that we really SHOULD be using it more than once).  I really like this stamp set that I got from Your Next Stamp (YNS) called Piles of Smiles, which comes with some fantastically cute pieces.

For this card, I made a blue base from Michael's cardstock.  I stamped my leaf stamps into a pile using (fake) post-it tape for masking, and then colored with my Zig Real Brush markers.  I should have used watercolor paper, but the paper was thick enough to handle the small amount of water I used with minimal pilling.  Then, I stamped the sentiment (Piles of Smiles) in Versamark and embossed it using Simon Says Stamp gold embossing powder.  I used fun foam to mount the 5 1/2 x 3 3/4 white panel onto my card base and added two little pearls near the sentiment.  I decided after I had taken the picture that I wanted to add Glossy Accents to the eyes.  This is the finished product:

I'm entering this into the YNS Color and Sketch Challenge for the color portion.  The card does have a bit of green in it, but green is a neutral, right?  No?  Pfft... Details...

Love Our Adventures - New Technique for Me!

So I was watching one of my favorite YouTube crafters, Jennifer McGuire, and came across an excellent technique in one of her videos that I knew I wanted to use.  You can catch her video here.  I decided to use the same technique, but with a stamp and die set from Close to my Heart (CtMH) that I have.  (BTW, has anyone seen their Canadian prices lately?  Cracked!  I'm not paying $10.25 for an ink pad!)

So, I pretty much followed Jennifer's technique, but using my own stamps and dies, and instead of stamping on the inside of the card, I used my distress inks and some masking to create a water scene.  For the front panels, I couldn't find a background stamp that I wanted to use, so I used a Heidi Swapp stencil and sponged CtMH White Daisy pigment ink onto it.  I stamped the images with die ink, and then stamped them again with Versamark ink and clear embossed them (Again, following Jennifer's technique).  I then used glue tape to attach my images.  You can see a close up of the way the see through panel comes out below.

I think everyone should give this technique a try!  It's actually quite easy!

Wow... That was a Long Break! Lets make some cards! Stamp of Approval Style!

So, wow!  It's been a loooooooooong time since I made a post!  In fact, it's been a long time since I made a card, too!  I've done some scrapbooking, but not even much of that.  I recently bought Catherine Pooler's Stamp of Approval box, which is an excellent goodie box filled with stamps and dies, and I thought I'd use that to get me back into my groove.  The collection is called the Lovely Notes Collection, but it's sold out now.

For the first card, I followed the guide provided with the box as inspiration.  And by inspiration, I really mean that I followed the instructions nearly step by step but changed out the sentiment and added some sparkly tape underneath my panel.  The original card was made by Kristie Goulet.  Here's my version:

The other two cards are really just two versions of the same card, this time lovingly created by my own tired brain cells.  I stamped the Lovely Lattice background stamp onto 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 white card stock and colored a rainbow gradient with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers.  I cut that in half diagonally, one for each card.  The I used the Lovely Flowers and Banners dies and the Fill in the Blank Birthday stamps to create my center panel.  Inked up the edges and popped it up using fun foam.  I'm really happy with how they came out!  You can see them below: