Archive for the ‘Cards’ Category

My husband’s college buddy had a baby a couple of weeks ago. He is a basketball coach and high school Principal. And, just like my husband, a huge Michael Jordan fan. So, my husband went out and bought a cute set of Jordan infant clothes and he asked me to make a special tag with the baby’s name.

That day I happened to have seen a door hanger template….I’m sorry, I wish I could remember where. So, I thought I’d try and use it.

I gave the hanger a “stroke” and printed the stroke on the back of orange cardstock. After cutting it out by hand I ran it through the Cuttlebug to emboss the “basketball” texture. I put some orange distress ink on the embossing folder first, although it was almost the same color and you can’t really see it. I also cut a backing out of very heavy duty orange glitter paper.

The baby is from the Paper Dolls Cricut Cartridge, and his face is a stamp by Peachy King. I found another newborn Jordan outfit on the internet and messed around with warping it until it would fit my baby. I literally made my Photoshop screen show “actual size” and kept holding the baby up there to the screen to check and see if the outfit would “fit” him yet.

The “crib” is actually part of a “fence”, I think from New Life Dreams? I clipped a blue polka-dot paper over it and played with blending modes till it looked right. After making the name tag I adhered it with a cute button brad. Then covered the backside with the glitter card stock piece.

Finally I distressed the edges and tied bits of ribbon around the top. I think it turned out adorable, although the “real” Beau has a beautiful thick head of black hair!

I’d been wanting an excuse to buy this fabulous Alice in Wonderland kit from Tangie Baxter called “Impossible Things.” So, when I needed to make a quick card for a friend on the same day I got a coupon from Tangie I knew exactly what I was buying!

This card is for Elizabeth Montgomery, a sweet friend who has an amazing voice. She sings her own music in little church concerts around the country. She also turned a poem about our son Gabe, written by my Father In Law Jack Nester into a beautiful song about his life in Heaven.

The words to one of Elizabeth’s songs surround the image:
“Now is the time to worship the Lord. Gathered together in one accord. No other place we’d rather be than in the Father’s Sanctuary. If we don’t praise Him the rocks will cry out. Heaven and Earth will lift up our shout.”

Here it is assembled into a card:

You can listen to the song on her Facebook page.

I thought it was appropriate for Easter. I’m just now posting it because I wanted to give it time to reach her in the mail.

Credits: Kit-Tangie Baxter. The skinny frame is by Christina Renee and the flower/jewel are Prima. Ribbon is Michael’s dollar bin. Elizabeth’s face is used for “Alice” instead of the face in Tangie’s kit.

Tangie Baxter’s prompt was “Tickled Pink” for week 14 of the Art Journal Caravan. Of course my first thought was our girls. The journalling is on my heart, not evident in the “artwork.” It is about being tickled pink with my house full of girls. But, at the same time, I’ll never know what it would have been like to have my middle child, a boy, thrown into the daily craziness. His sixth birthday is tomorrow. He died during childbirth. He is on the other side of grace, and we are on the other side of grief. We have a happy household. But we do miss Gabe, he still shows up in most of the family portraits my girls draw. Right in the middle of them where he belongs.

The vintage dolls are a freebie stamp I found. But they looked a little scary, even for a bittersweet subject. So, I gave them Manga eyes from another free brush set I found. There are a lot of blending effects here with the four papers used, so most of them don’t look like the original. I love the black and white curtains, they are from Tangie Baxter’s Impossible Things kit. And Anne DeJong’s paper feather was the perfect finishing touch!

Credits: Tangie Baxter, Dianne Rigdon, Anne De Jong, http://visionofviolet.deviantart.com/art/Manga-eyes-for-Newbies-77930122, http://brushes.500ml.org/list2.php (vintage toy brushes)

This past Valentines day we went to the church my FIL pastors. We stayed for their monthly fellowship dinner. There is a woman that is part of his congregation that blew me away with her talent and generosity. Her name is Chris. A year or so ago she lost her only son, still a boy, after dealing with life long health issues which kept her from being active at church for most of his life. It is very sad. It is heartwarming to see her love for children shine so brightly.

On Valentines day she volunteered not only to cook lunch for the entire church, but she was in charge of games, and all of the prizes. She brought enough prizes for a church twenty times the size of our little community church. She made a table full of lamps from parts she had picked up here an there. They were beautiful. And, she made dozens of little jean purses lined with taffeta. Plus she brought a table full of toys for the children. All of this and she was still a relaxed hostess. I’d never met her before, and was happy to meet such a gracious woman.

I decided she needed a very special Thank-you card. The verse is 1Peter 4:10– “Each of you has been blessed with one of God’s many wonderful gifts to be used in the service of others. So use your gift well.”

I hear she framed it, and that made me smile. Then she sent me a whole bag of ribbons and trim so I could make more cards. I guess she is in for another pretty Thank-you card now!

I hope to get to spend more time getting to know Chris, I feel a connection with her since we both lost our only sons and we both love crafty things. Anyway, she is a beautiful reminder of how all talents, even of a craft nature, can be used to bless others. I love it when we find ways to use our crafty talents to fulfill God’s purpose!

Credits: Tangie Baxter and her equally talented Mother (the Illustrator) Rebecca McMeen, Tracy Ann (paper), Maya (book “nook”), New Life Dreams (lantern), and the edges were distressed with purple/yellow/green cat-eye chalk ink

P.S. Sorry about the photo quality, I’d lost my camera charger and had to use our video camera to take a picture before I gave the card away.

My Wordpress blog got a virus last July and I spent two months working with my then hosting provider to resolve the situation. They finally washed their hands of the situation and said I needed to get help from the Wordpress forum. Well that did not go anywhere either. So, my blog sat stagnant for the fourth quarter of 2009 while I mustered the energy to rebuild.

From September through December I was working on a contract basis doing strategic marketing for GoAnyware which left me with very little spare time. They are giving me a break in January and I expect it to pick back up in February. So, I decided January would be the month to rebuild my blog (post by post and picture by picture…ugh) and launch my website. I’ll also go ahead and backdate some posts with work I shared on Facebook during my technical difficulties.

I used a great little application called “Artisteer” to create my Wordpress theme. It was very easy. I’d highly recommend it.

I also decided to try using Joomla for my main site. Call me brave or call me naive. It has been a bit more challenging so if you go to my main domain (please don’t) then you will see a mess right now. I’ll be getting back to that next. I might even get started this afternoon!

I’m thrilled to be able to get back to blogging in 2010….Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our house to yours…these are just mailing today!

The kit is a collaboration between Catherine Designs and Bisontine.

I’ve got “digi” on the brain and so naturally I turned to my computer stash to make my husband’s Father’s Day card. I am hoping to get my fingers a little dirty with some paints and distress inks soon though!

He really liked all three cards we made him. I may just have to photograph the other two as well! Danielle kind out-did me on bolstering Neal’s ego, she wrote that she liked his “musls” (translate muscles) and lifting “wayts” (weights) with him.

My husband is a man of many talents, and I wanted him to know that I appreciate everything he does for us girls and our house!

Product Credits:

Castle/grass/ladder/frame/orange wood heart/stacked boxes-New Life Dreams (NLD), heart 1/heart2/heart3-On designs, paper-Holly Designs, stitching-Christina Renee, tiny heart-MK Designs, alpha1-JBullock, alpha2 Tracy Ann (TADA)

My daughter’s Kindergarten class is called the “Giraffes.” Their mascot is George the Giraffe. Last fall they all took turns being the “Star Student”, and got to take him home for the weekend. We had a great time with George, and this year with her teacher.

This is Teacher Appreciation week and today they were supposed to take a flower with a Thank-You card. I suppose I should have let her make a card, but I forgot about it until after her bedtime! So, I stayed up until 1:00 working on it, and then she forgot to put it in her backpack after proudly carrying it around all morning!

It was too cute not to share.

The giraffe painting is from a very old book. A couple of months ago I found it on a website where people shared art that is now copyright free. I didn’t know what I’d do with it at the time but I figured I would make something for Mrs. Green before the year was over.

The picture on the front of the card was taken on Easter. I loved the way the wind caught her hair, and figured it was a cute picture for Mrs. Green to remember our favorite Kindergartner by!

I created it digitally in Photoshop CS3 with materials from the following:

• White and Brown “Kraft” Papers: Amanda Rockwell
• Watercolor landscape paper, heart, and roses: Tracy Ann Graphics
• Pink photo wraps: Katie Pertiet
• Starry sky bling: Christina Renee
• Star frame: Ruth Davis
• Flourish: Rhonna Farrer
• Frame mask: Lynn Grieveson

I printed the front side on a piece of white card stock and ran the paper back through to print the back. The tricky part is positioning the 5 x 7 card on an 8.5 x 11 canvas in Photoshop and then turning the paper the correct way while printing the second side!

The suburb that I live in has a wonderful herb festival every spring and last year I bought this pretty handmade paper with flower seeds embedded in it. I had intended to make my mom and MIL Mother’s Day cards but forgot I had it! So, I made my MIL a card with it for her birthday.

She liked it so much that she brought it to work to show it off! So, if you have a “green” mom or friend you might want to look into this paper! Here are some sites I found with similar paper:

• http://www.custompaper.com/paper.html
• http://www.greenfieldpaper.com/asccustompages/products.asp?categoryid=11
• http://www.botanicalpaperworks.com/category/Plantable+Seed+Paper+and+Envelopes/7/

If I remember correctly this paper will grow sunflowers! I designed the card so that she could keep the front intact and just plant the inside panel. The flowers on the front of the card are from Tim Holtz’s grungeboard collection. I had a lot of fun with his paints and distress inks while making this card, I just stayed loose and messy. The chipboard tag was painted with his crackle paint and then distressed with a variety of products. But, the birthday sentiment is not showing up too well in this photo! Thanks to Neal for coming up with the creative inside verse!

A couple of weeks ago I was headed to the library with my 3 year old thinking about what stamp I wanted to do next and I thought about doing a penguin with a heart snowman. When I got there a children’s nature magazine jumped off the shelf at me because of the penguin feature. When I flipped to the article there was a penguin in this pose and I thought, there THAT is my next stamp.

So I borrowed a pencil from the librarian and sketched his pose then re-drew it with my Wacom tablet later when my daughter was napping. Ephesians 3:8 immediately came to mind as the perfect verse. I think this stamp would be great for Valentines day, Easter, encouragement, or a simple I love you.

The blue snow and brown hounds-tooth papers are Basic Grey and the white embossed swirly paper was sold by the sheet at Michaels. I bought it for my Hawaii album and will have to go grab a few more sheets.

Coloring this stamp was more of a challenge for me than drawing it! Black and white subjects like Penguins and snow are not the easiest thing to master. I printed the stamp 4 up and played with each element until I achieved a look I was happy with then brought it all together in the final illustration. I used Copics and only have one “000? color, so everything was too saturated and too hard to blend out to white. So, I used a technique I learned from Marianne in my Copic certification class. I have a water brush filled with Copic’s blending solution and I used sort of a water color technique, blending my colors on a Ranger craft mat. This is how I did the hearts, wind, sky, rocks and snow.

For the penguin I used all 5 grey markers. On the wings I “flicked” feather like strokes starting with the lightest grey and working my way up going darker as I went. Then I colored black onto my Ranger mat and used the blender solution water brush to dilute it. I was pleased with the feathery edge that it produced as long as I kept my brush as dry as possible while still loaded with color.

The wind is accented with Adirondack Pearl paint and I swirled stickles on the heart snowman. Finally, I distressed the edge of all the layers with Tim Holtz’s Old Paper Distress Ink. Then I used his Black soot on the very edges so that the black from the drawing was carried through.

This is a continuation of my Song of Solomon Valentines digital stamp creations. There are three now, so I guess I can call it a “digital stamp set.” While I was drawing the Trapeze artists I was not sure what verse I would use, but when I read Song of Solomon 3:4 I knew it was meant to be!

I wanted the card to have an antiqued and distressed feel and chose a subdued and earthy palette of Copic markers. I made every attempt to make it as masculine as possible. After distressing the artwork with Tim Hotz’s “Old Paper” ink I inked the edge with “Walnut Stain” and then applied Walnut Stain Distress Stickles! Wow, what a fun way to add bling in a manly fashion!

Deciding on an embellishment to add some dimension was a little more challenging. My husband suggested that I restrain myself from the urge to add flowers when I was showing him some Grungeboard flowers. So I settled on Grungeboard initials. Cricut users can get the same effect by cutting letters out of chipboard. I painted the “n” and “h” with Antique Bronze Distress Crackle Paint. After it dried I stamped a zebra pattern on the letters with Fired Brick Distress Crackle paint. I like that it sort of looks like flames. The ampersand was painted with Tarnished Brass Distress Crackle Paint then I stamped it with a Cheetah pattern. After distressing the letters with Walnut Stain I applied Scattered Straw Distress Stickles to the ampersand.

I think the animal prints tied very nicely with the Circus themed illustration. I was striving for a sensually romantic feel in the illustration and was happy to achieve sort of an underlying “wild at heart” theme for the musclebound lover.

The striped paper is from Creative Memories 2007 Limited Edition Valentines kit. It has a beautiful distessed brown pallet accented by peach, mauve and white. Read on if you’d like to win this paper kit.

I’d like to see how some other people would use this digital stamp in a Valentines (or other romantic) card. So, I decided to host an impromptu single event design team. If you like this design and would like to be considered for participation then leave me a comment. I will pick up to 5 people, who respond here or to my message on the Cricut board, to be on my special Valentines event team.

You will have 5 days to design a card and post it on your blog with a link back to my site mentioning the contest.

TERMS:

1. You can use the digital stamp to make your own cards as long as it is not for commercial gain
2. And you cannot enter anything using my pre-release stamp design into another contest or publication.
3. You will not email it or make it otherwise electronically available to anyone else.
4. You must have a blog to participate.
5. If you post your card on a messageboard you must link back to my blog and mention the contest.
6. I will have the right to use your card design in the event I decide to promote my stamp commercially, linking to your blog as the card designer.

The chosen 5 will “win” my first pre-release stamp. And one of the 5 will be selected as the winner of my contest. The winner will receive the beautiful special edition Creative Memories Valentines 8?  kit and very cute set of acrylic valentines stamps. I will be getting my friends and family to give me input on who to choose.

PLUS, I will pick a winner from the volunteers to receive a second set of valentines stamps. So everyone who expresses interest has a chance to win a prize, even if you are not chosen for the design team.

Thanks to those who have already expressed interest, I’m hoping to get a little more awareness now that I’ve created my own version of the card. I plan to pick the team late Monday.