Archive for the ‘Cards’ Category

With Valentines day around the corner I’m kind of on a heart kick with one more idea sketched. Like the first one, this is inspired by a Song of Solomon verse. Knowing a little about the Bible’s “love chapter” I’m interpreting this verse as being about “getting in the mood.”   

My illustration goes along with the literal meaning of the verse with a heart sunset symbolising the passionate mood.

We just drove through the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas and I took several pictures of windmills, one of which I used for this sketch. My landscape is colored to look like the desert foothills as you enter New Mexico. But, it could just as easily be colored in greens with grassy terrain. I thought the red dirt look would lend itself well to a masculine card.

I distressed the torn edges of my artwork with “old paper” Distress Ink by Tim Holtz and the rest was distressed with “walnut stain.” Then I liberally spread his antique linen Distress Stickles around the edges. I think the distress stickles were a great choice for the masculine look I was after.

The flowers are cream Primas which I colored with Copics to match the illustration. I used Glossy Accents to adhere buttons to the center and set them off with a felt leaf.

Keep your eye out for the next installment of my valentines digital stamps, hopefully by the end of the weekend.

This is the first of (hopefully) a few digital stamps I’m making for Valentines day. As you may know, Song of Solomon is a love story and it is full of allegories. Think of this verse as a description of the passion between King Solomon and his new bride. I’ll let your imagination take it from there.

I added a little whimsy with the turtle shell in place of the wing and the fun girlish font.

It was stamped in Photoshop on a digital distressed white “paper” and then printed out on cardstock. I then colored it with Copics.

Next I cut a frame with my Cricut, using a design from Stretch Your Imagination. I used Coredinations cardstock, distressed it, then backed it with a Basic Grey distressed white (which matches the digital paper in the illustration.)

I would love to hear feedback on my first digital stamp design!

For my IRL (In Real Life) friends that have already sent us Christmas cards….we are LOVING seeing new pictures of your family and hearing what you’ve been up to in 2008. Ours has not been sent yet because we wanted to have a professional photo taken on the slopes at Angel Fire. We went with Neal’s whole family this past week and drove home on Christmas Eve.

I ended up using a photo taken with my camera because it was just too far for me to drag an uncooperative Raeleigh and for Danielle and Neal to walk in their snow boots. Thanks to Brandy for getting Raeleigh to smile, this was the best shot we could manage. I’m sure those who have been through the three year old stage can relate!

The paper and design elements are mostly from Designer Digitals, except for the tag which is from Two Peas in a Bucket. The green polka dot paper was a freebie at Designer Digitals.

• Festive Song Solids Paperie
• Posted Santa Postage Stamps
• Crystalized Postage Frames
• Postmarked Holidays Brushes and Stamps No. 02
• Chance of Flurries: Glittered
• Glitter Thread Stitches No. 02
• Tia Bennet Holiday Journalling (tag)

I really enjoyed digitally designing our card this year! It was all done in Photoshop. It was nice to not be limited to the designs that Moto Photo had to choose from. I actually designed our card in 2005 when Raeleigh was born because Moto Photo didn’t have a “Pink Christmas” birth announcement/Christmas combo. But I didn’t know about the whole world of online digital scrapbook shopping and scanned in my paper choices! This was much easier!

Kudos to those of you that actually handcraft your cards! I’d never finish that many of them and am happy to be sending these off to WalMart to be printed today!

Oh, and by the way, in case you didn’t know it, Santa snowboards and Mrs. Claus skis! Danielle met Santa while she was skiing, he gave her a candy cane!

I had seen the keys in Tim Holtz’s Idea-ology collection but didn’t realize they were about to be such a trendy embellishment! With Valentines day just around the corner the opportunity to use keys are endless. This month’s issue of Paper Crafts magazine has a ton of really cute ideas to get your juices flowing! I love the idea of combining the “travel” concept with a “love” theme.

I found this quotes/poems site and tweaked a couple of their verses just a little to get you thinking:

You’re a very special person
Always destined to go far
I hope your friends and family
Know how lucky they are

Or I was picturing a car with a heart peeking out of the trunk with this verse which could also work for a male birthday. Just hang your key embellishment from a bow.

My heart has travelled to be with you
May all that is good come your way
On this very special day

Cornish Heritage farms has some fabulous old car stamps and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this set of “Chevy Font” sentiments:

Cricut has a great old fashioned key on Happily Ever After and car keys on Going Places and Locker Talk. If you don’t have those cartridges the Paper Crafts article lists 6 to 8 products from various manufacturers including Bazzill, Prima, and 7 Gypsies.

Think about opening doors to someone’s future (graduation) or a house warming card. Or, for an encouraging inspirational card use a key with “FAITH” word art.

Who knew how versitile a key could be?!

Hero Arts is having a challenge this week to use up your scraps to make Thank-You cards. I do not have many Hero Arts stamps (yet) but I was given this little birdie stamp at their booth when my sister placed her order at CHA.  I had some of Claudine Hellmuth’s new sticky back canvas that I’d been wanting to play with and thought they’d make great curtains. The window frame and ribbon “curtain tie-backs” were my “scraps”, the rest is paper from Basic Grey. Of course I just re-read the rules and it needed to have a stamped scrap incorporated, so unless I can find a stamped scrap for the inside I guess the little birdy won’t get to compete!

The window panes were stamped with Ranger’s white Embossing Puffs on a “surfer” paper in Basic Grey’s “Obscure” collection. Then they were placed on a distressed window pane. This basic brown card stock was “weathered” with paints from Adirondack. Rough edges can be acheived with a razor, mine is by Heidi Swapp but Tim Holtz makes one and you can even use a household razor if you are careful! The “wallpaper” is from Basic Grey’s Recess collection and it too has been distressed with paint and the razor.

To make the “curtains” I first painted the Sticky Back Canvas with Adirondack’s Metallics Copper in a swirly motion. Then I stamped some swirly records from a Disney Hannah Montanna set in peach. Next the curtains and all of the other pieces, including the ribbon, were distressed with a combination of Tim Holtz’s Walnut and Old Paper distress inks. It was amazing how distress techniques turned this card from “blah” into “art!”

The bird was stamped in the Walnut ink and colored with Copics. There is not a lot of room for shading so any old marker set will do!

The Fragment from Tim Holtz has a bible verse stamped on the front with Expresso acrylic paint. And the back has a little white paint dabbed on it, still letting the window pane peek through. The text will be a little easier to read if the white has pretty good coverage behind the letters.

Working with Claudine Hellmuth’s new sticky back canvas was so much fun. To make the curtains I simply folded it in a fan, then removed the backing and it kept it’s shape. I pressed down between each fold to adhere and it is sticking very well. I’m not sure how it would hold up in the mail though. You might consider using a hot glue gun to fill in the back of the raised folds so they’ll keep their pretty shape. Next I’m going to try cutting this material in a Cricut and will report back!

This blue and cream paper is from Basic Grey’s new Granola collection. It is beautiful paired with a bird from Tim Holtz’s new Nature grungeboard set.

Grungeboard is amazing to work with. There are limitless possibilities when it comes to altering and embellishing this ingenious material. It is soft and pliable and very light too. The rather large bird does not weigh down the card in the least.

THE BIRD

The primary color used in painting the bird is Mushroom from Adirondack’s Dimensional Pearls. The highlights are achieved with Adirondack’s Metallics Pearl paint and Sandal from the Lights collection.

After the paint dries heat emboss the bird with the tree stamp from Hero Arts’ birds and branch stamp set. Stampendous has a color called Pearl Lustre Sapphire which is opaque and goes quite nicely with the feathery blue Basic Grey paper. Use the outside edges of the tree, it may be easiest to use a tinted embossing powder so you can see where you have already stamped. Avoid stamping the tree trunk. Doesn’t bird look right at home camouflaged in the Hero Arts tree?

THE SENTIMENT

The border stamp is actually a 12? stamp from Hero Arts, heat embossed with Ranger’s white embossing Puffs. It is slightly distressed, but has a very different look from Tim Holtz’s distressed embossing powders. The sentiment is from an acrylic stamp set by PrintWorks and the coordinating flower is a Whisper Prima flower.

ASSEMBLY

This card comes together very quickly. Cut the paper down to fit the card base and then cut along the curve of the floral border stamp. Rough up all of the edges with a distressing razor. Then use Old Paper Distress Ink by Tim Holtz around the edge of the card. Come back around with a thinner application of Denim Dimensional Pearls.

After the patterned papers are adhered decide upon placement of the bird, which will be applied with a dimensional adhesive. But first use Adirondack’s Metallics Pearl to highlight the left side of the bird and the Mushroom Dimensional Pearls to create a shadow under the bird and on the right. No need to apply it to the bottom half of the card. The idea is to make the bird pop off of the blue and white patterned paper.

This uplifting card has a very peaceful mood, thanks to Basic Grey for the beautiful papers that inspired the design!

The inspiration for the color palette is a little strawberry and chocolate ice cream. Whether you are celebrating or need a little comfort ice cream will usually do the trick! So this little card is a great addition to any card giver’s stash.

The background is a single color application of a little trick that the Hero Arts blog is featuring this week. It is simple to do but it may take a few tries to get the shape you want, in this case the shape is that of a single scoop of strawberry ice cream.

DISTRESSED BACKGROUND

1. Press Tim Holtz’s Tattered Rose distress ink pad face down on your craft mat, turn the pad about 20 degrees and press again in the same spot, repeat once more. The idea is to avoid an unsightly square shape and keep the ink blot small enough in proportion to the stamp.
2. Spritz the area liberally with water and swirl it around with your fingertip to get rid of the square edges.
3. Place your paper face down and twirl it around. Try to avoid having the entire surface touch the table at once if you are trying to acheive a roundish shape. Plan on having to throw away a few tries! Use your heat gun to move the ink around and dry “drips” into the freeform design. Keep at it with the remaining ink until it takes shape.
4. Using a dry paint brush apply Adirondack’s Metallics Copper paint around the edges then accent it with the Metalics Pearl paint.
5. Add a little flair to the corners with the sparkly pearl paint.
6. Apply Aderondack’s Expresso paint around the edges of the card base. Use an angled feather like stroke with your dry paint brush and go back over the edges to make sure they are well covered.

ICE CREAM IN GREEN CARNIVAL GLASS DISH

1. Stamp the ice cream sundae stamp with a non-solvent ink like Brilliance. Make sure it is dry so your marker tips will not get discolored.
2. Color the dish all over with a light blue (Copic BG10).
3. Shade the lines with a light green (YG11).
4. Use a darker green to place a thinner line of shade (G02).
5. Blend all over with the light blue.
6. Add some mottled highlights with the colorless blender.
7. Use three shades of brown to color the chocolate ice cream (E33, E35, E37), three shades of pink (R20, RV02, RV13) to color the strawberry, a medium and a dark brown (E37, E29) for the syrup, and two shades of red plus a light grey (R24, R37, C3) for the cherry. Use the colorless blender to add some shine at the top of the cherry.
8. Color the whip cream with a Versamark embossing pen and use Rangers white Embossing Puffs to accomplished the raised effect.
9. Cover the glass dish and the cherry with Ink Essentials Glossy Accents.

ACRYLIC ACCENT

Remember that acrylic paint is an opaque medium and when working on the backside of the acrylic accent you will work from light to dark. On the front side work from dark to light.

1. Stamp “BFF” on the front side of the acrylic shape with the Adirondack Expresso acrylic paint. Set aside to dry before proceeding to the next step.
2. Use the Pearl paint dauber to highlight the letters from the backside. Let it dry.
3. Dab the copper paint around the edges of the back side.
4. Add the three white highlights to the front.

FLOWERS

The flowers are plain cream paper flowers by Prima from thier Black Tie Collection. It is not a ”bleed-proof” paper so markers will bleed a bit and you can plan on a loose water color look. If you would rather have a more tight painterly style then choose acrylic paint. These flowers were done with Copic markers.

1. Color the flowers with markers to draw out your favorite colors from the patterned background paper.
2. Add some Stickles to the petals, most of the glitter will settle into the debossed swirls.
3. Use dimensional pearls paint for the centers of the flowers, or rhinestones would be a nice option too.

Assemble the artwork on a patterned paper, this is Basic Grey. Tuck the flowers in as you place it on the card base. Use a dimensional adhesive for adhering the ice cream centerpiece. Then as a finishing touch set off the white space with pearalicious stamped swirls!

Thanks to Hero Arts I learned a new technique today. I just got my Ranger mat last week, a must for this technique so when I saw this video I was anxious to try it out!

BRAYERD THANKS

1. Stamp “Thanks” with a clear Big & Bossy embossing pad all over a glossy card stock.
2. Cover a large brayer with Big & Juicy Foliage.
3. Roll over the card stock until it is smooth and well covered, re-applying ink as needed.
4. Take care not to touch the surface and set it aside to dry.

FOREST SCENE

5. Follow the technique in the above Hero Arts video for the background behind the trees.
6. Then stamp the circle border from the Borders Clear Design Stamp Sets (Hero Arts)
in brown.
7. Use a large round dauber to paint the trees with Tim Holtz distress ink in spiced marmalade, walnut brown, and peeled paint.
8. Roughly draw in some tree trunks with a Copic E37 marker and use a water brush filled with Copic’s colorless blender to fill in the trunks.
9. Stamp the Prima giraffe with an ink like Brilliance, Prima stamps don’t stamp will with the distress ink.
10. Color the giraffe with Y11, shade with Y21, and then selectively with YR02. Go back over the giraffe with Y11 to blend as you work in the colors.
11. Use glossy accents to liberally cover the giraffe and the tree tops.

Finally, cut and emboss a tag and the forest scene with Nestabilities. Then assemble the card with coordinating ribbon and card stock using a dimensional adhesive such as Zots.

This card is for my Starbucks buddy who was a great listener and gave me some very helpful advice. Hey, BTW, I finally figured out how to make a great iced coffee at home!

Hobby Lobby is having a great sale this week with all of their paper at 50% off. The perfect time to take a chance on a new product and experiment. I bought the Core’dinations ”Spell Caster” pack. It is black on one side and has twenty shades of “vintage” color on the other side. The black side is indeed magic, and it LOVES the Cuttlebug! It was so fun that I just had to create a quick video. When people see what you can do with Cuttlebug folders and a piece of sandpaper this stuff is going to fly off the shelves!

As the image started to pop it just screamed for my new Prima Panda stamp. I love how the colors of the card are seasonal, on a non-Christmas card. The reds, greens and black make my little Chinese Panda feel right at home. And the shiny red ribbon is reminiscant of a classical Chinese silk dress.

The Panda’s body is shaded with Copic W1 and W3 markers with R02 in the nose and ears and YG63 on the flourishes. The background was done with W1 as the base all the way around and YR00/RV21 and YG63 applied to the tip of the colorless blender and worked into the top and bottom respectively. As I worked my way outward my strokes became more loose with white space showing through. Then I drew some branches with the same colors on the top bottom. But it was a little overpowering so I went back over the branches with a colorless blender which was exactly what it needed. After cutting the Panda out with Spellbinder Nestabilities I used a Copic Multiliner to draw loops around the scallops and filled them in with the pinks and green.

The caption box was cut/embossed with long rectangle Nestabilities then colored with the Copics and topped off with Diamond Stickles. “Thanks” is a Cuttlebug die. I colored it with R02, then applied red Liquid Pearls in a “sponge-like” pattern with my fingertip and finished it off with Glossy Accents.

The flowers are Prima’s Essentials 5 “Make Me Happy” and they coordinate perfectly with the Basic Grey’s Urban Prairie paper and brads.

I originally started designing this card last week for submission into a contest for a card using three colors, three stamps, and a photograph for bonus points. I photographed this deer a few weeks ago at the zoo when the lighting and his beauty caught my eye. But my ideas for incorporating the stamps were not working out.

Instead I decided to try this two tone Cuttlebug technique. I applied Tim Holtz Vintage Photo distress ink to the front of the snowflake folder and carefully inserted white paper then ran it through the Cuttlebug. I did the same thing for the hearts folder. I trimmed some rows of hearts and heat embossed the white hearts with a clear embossing powder. Then I applied a white pigment stamp pad very liberally to the front of the twigs folder and very quickly ran a paper bag colored paper through the Cuttlebug while the ink was still very wet.

For the deer photo I first converted it to Sepia in Photoshop by selecting Image/Adjustments/Photo Filter/Sepia. Then I converted it to a sketch in Photoshop by selecting Filter/Sketch/Photo Copy. You will have to adjust the settings to achieve the desired level of detail. I set detail to about 8 and darkness to about 5. The higher the darkness number the darker your lines.

I created the bible verse by using the eyedropper tool to select the darkest area in my now “drawing” and applying it to the text. I printed several variations of the text with a few of the deer images from Adobe InDesign in order to save paper and allow me to try variations. Then I cut and embossed them with Nestabilities long classic scalloped rectangle.

I really am pleased with how the design in the end was “peaceful” and matched the feeling I felt when the deer caught my eye. The snow makes it a seasonal card but with the hearts and the verse it also carries an underlying theme to not let our heart grow cold. Charles Spurgeon writes about the craving for our Lord as a sign of growth.

When a man pants after God, it is a secret life within which makes him do it: he would not long after God by nature. No man thirsts for God while he is left in his carnal (i.e., unconverted) state. The unrenewed man pants after anything sooner than God:…It proves a renewed nature when you long after God; it is a work of grace in your soul, and you may be thankful for it.

I really enjoy making cards with a spiritual theme and amazingly have found that the creative process does surprisingly quench my thirst!