"Reel" Friends

So I was going through my stamps today so that I could do a little fall cleaning (what? So I'm behind like half a year.  Don't judge! 0_~ ), and I came across exactly what I said yesterday I didn't have: a fishing stamp.  I had totally forget about the Mulberry Wood fishing stamp that I had bought from Crafter's Companion years ago.  So of course I made a card.

This was a pretty basic one.  I stamped the card in My Favorite Things Black Licorice Hybrid Ink, and then colored my image using Sakura watercolors.  I then cut the image to 4 1/4 by 4 1/4, and mounted it on a water color background.  The sentiment was made by using the leftover watercolor background; I stamped the sentiment in Versamark ink and embossed it in white using Ranger super fine detail white embossing powder.

I'm entering this card in:

SSS Monday Card Challenge: Go Fish
SSS Wednesday Card Challenge: It's Hip to be Square

"Whale" be Friends Forever

Simon Says Stamp's latest Monday challenge is technically "Go Fish", but I don't have many fish stamps, so this whale card will have to suffice.  The stamp is one of Stephanie Barnard's Stamps of Life stamps, which has matching dies. The waves and the whale both come from this set.  I also used Your Next Stamps' Stitched Rectangle dies.

I kept the card simple and bright, with only some gold glitter marker and white gel pen for accents.  I mounted the die cut images onto a card base made from 110 lb white card stock using fun foam, and that completed my card!

This is for the following challenge:

Simon Says Stamp's Monday Challenge Blog: "Go Fish

Big Wishes with Close to my Heart Darling Dinos Stamps

ONe of the girls I work with was leaving to go back to school, so I made this card to wish her luck.  It uses Close to my Heart's Darling Dinos stamps, which I'm fairly sure is retired.  You can use any dinosaur stamps for the same effect!  So, I used my brand new Mini Misti that I recently received from Simon Says Stamp, and I have to say that it is AMAZING!  I really wish I hadn't waited so long to get one!  My images came out perfect, after I stamped them a few times with My Favorite Things ink.

I wanted to make a scene card, but Darling Dinos pretty much just comes with 3 dinosaurs and some sentiments, so I decided I was going to make my own sun using a circle die.  Yeah.  Only that didn't work out quite so well.  I made a large smudge as I was tracing!!!  But, I was too lazy to stamp the images again, so I just decided to go with it, and hid the smudge by making the sun into a stylized swirl with extended rays and then adding some plants to the foreground.  I also added little dots to the image so that it matched the stamp dinos.

I colored everything with my alcohol markers, a mix of brands including Copics, ProMarkers, and Fake Shinhan markers from ebay (which are cheap and work great, btw).  I don't have the exact colors, because I just blend as I go with whatever looks right.  I finished the card with the Big Wishes sentiment from the Darling Dinos set and cut the front panel with the Your Next STamp rectangle dies.  The card was begging for some dimension, so I mounted the panel on some fun foam.  Tada!  All done!

Stamp of Approval - Thanks

So I wanted to make one more card for the Lovely Notes Stamp of Approval box.  If you'd bought the Lovely Notes SOA box, you can post any projects you've made on her blog for a chance to win the next SOA box coming out in September.

I wanted to try something more loose than what I'd done, so I stamped some butterflies on water color paper in Distress Ink and they spritzed them with water.  I added a few random splatters of Distress Ink for interest.  After that, I stamped the same butterflies in Versamark ink and embossed them with Wow! Clear Holographic Glitter Embossing Powder.  I finished the card by embossing the painted Thanks sentiment from the SOA box, and mounted it onto my butterfly panel, which I cut using a stitched border die.  I'm very happy with how this one came out!


Challenges:

Win the Holiday Stamp of Approval Collection!

One Layer Cards

I don't know why it is, but I rarely seem to do one layer cards.  I think part of it is that I was always afraid that the color would bleed through to the inside of the card, but it seems to be okay as long as I don't use Copics.

With that in mind, today I thought I'd pop outside my comfort zone and make a few one layer cards.  The best thing is that they didn't take me long at all.  Fair warning: one of these is a CHRISTMAS card!!  I know, right?  It's not even September yet, but there you go.


Card #1 - Stamp of Approval

I used one of the butterflies from the Butterfly Notes set and stamped them in rainbow color across the middle of a top-fold landscape card.  I used the "Thanks" and "a Note to Say" sentiment from the same set and Voila!  All done!


Card #2: Your Next Stamp

For this card, I folowed the above , but instead of a butterfly, I used my Thumb.  Then I stamped one of the faces from YNS's Create a Character stamp set.  I used the same sentiment from the SOA Butterfly Notes set.  I didn't bother to color the eyes white, but you totally could.


Card #3:  Stamp of Approval

And now the Christmas card!  This one was done using the Wonderful Wreath set.  I stamped the wreath three times, once in CtMH Champagne, then in Pear, and then Topiary.  Basically, beige, then light green then dark green.  I stamped some pine cones in brown and the berries and the ribbon in red.  I wanted something to make in sparkle, so I dragged something from my stash that I hadn't used in a long time:  Stickles!  I coated everything that was red in Christmas Red Stickles.  And that finished my card!

YNS and SOA

I've got two more cards to share with you today, one using goodies I recently got from Your NExt Stamp, and one using goodies from Catherine Pooler's Stamp of Approval.

Your Next Stamp

I made this card for the Sketch and Color Challenge #46 up at Your Next Stamp.  I used two sets that co-ordinate very well with each other, Maki a Wish and Soy Awesome.  I followed the sketch of the challenge (but switched up the placement of a few elements), and colored my images using my Prismacolor pencils.  I used a bit of random paper from my stash (I feel like I'll never need to buy paper again, my stash is THAT out of control).  I white embossed the sentiment onto grey card stock and added a little fishtail.  I attached everything with fun foam to add dimension.  Finally, I finished the card by coating the soy bottle in a think coat of Glossy Accents.

Stamp of Approval

I used the Butterfly Notes and the Lovely Flowers stamp sets from the Lovely Notes Stamp of Approval collection for this card.  I simply stamped a background of various thank you sentiments using Close to my Heart inks onto white paper. I then stamped 3 butterflies (using two tones of ink to give some dimension) onto white card stock and fussy-cut them out.  Can I just stop a minute here to say how much I despise fussy-cutting??  Yeah.  Moving on.

I stamped the main Thank You sentiment from the same collection and them mounted everything thing using fun foam, and the butterflies were mounted so that their wings are higher than their bodies.  The gold shiny strip along the side in metallic washi tape from the Dollarama.  I finished off the card with a few enamel dots.  Does anyone other than me always have trouble finding the right places to put enamel dots and sequins?  I love them when other people use them, but I just can't get them to work right...

Challenges:

Sketch and Color Challenge #46

Win the Holiday Stamp of Approval Collection!

You're Lovely - Using a Shaped Die as a Border

For this card, I wanted to do a border on my card, but I wanted something a bit different.  A while ago, I had bought the Sizzix Birch Leaves from Amazon (who consistently sucks away all my money), and never really used it for anything, because for the life of me, I could NOT figure out what I would do with a 5-6 inch leaf die.  Well, I wanted to get some use out of it, so when Simon Says issued their Wednesday challenge "Make it to the Border", I knew what die set I was using.

I took a piece of white 110lb card stock and cut it down to 4 1/4 by 5 1/2.  I folded it in half, and then cut the leaf shape into one side of the card.  I placed a sheet of patterned paper behind it.  Of course, I later realized that the paper was patterned on both sides and I had to add another piece of white paper behind it!

I then used the Lovely Flowers stamp set and matching dies from Catherine Pooler's Stamp of Approval box.  You can't buy these stamps right now, but they'll be available for purchase on her site at a later date.  I stamped the images in various Close to my Heart colors, die cut them, and then arranged them on the front of the card.  I stamped the sentiment in black and then coated "lovely" in Glossy Accents.  I finished the card off by putting Wink of Stella on some of the flowers.

If you want to see how to make your own Wink of Stella, check out my YouTube video here.

This card is for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Make for the Border