Archive for the ‘Cards’ Category

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!

I am having a lot of fun with my Copic Markers! This is my eldest daughter’s birthday card. I used the brand new card sized paper pack, “Urban Prairie” from Basic Grey as my inspiration for color choices.

The “doorway” is a Cricut cut from the Happily Ever After cartridge. I cut it on a heavy white cardstock and colored it with markers. Then I accented the jeweled areas with Icicle Stickles.

The stamp is by Hampton Art, I picked it up at Michaels. It actually says “Birthday Princess” at the bottom but I didn’t want to cut off the ornamental bottom on the doorway so I did not ink that part of the stamp. After I colored the princess I applied Icicle Stickles to the apron part of the dress. It worked perfectly, not bleeding my inks at all! The star on the magic wand and center of the butterfly are yellow stickles. The ribbon on the wand, the crown and the bird are all Liquid Pearls. I smeared Liquid Pearls around the edges on the background for the perfect magical finishing touch.

The ”6? is cut at 2.75 inches from Alphalicious. First I colored it a light pink, going over different areas to achieve a mottled look. Then I did the edges in a darker pink and blended it in with the light pink, working my way around alternating colors. Next I tried a trick I learned from Marianne in the Copic class. I colored a (just out) Inkadinkado stamp with a dark pink Copic Marker, going over it several times so it had a lot of color applied. Then I spritzed it with my Ranger mister, filled with water and stamped in on the six. Next I shaded a few select areas with a very light blue and warm grey. I finished the “6? off by applying the rasberry Liquid Pearl, more heavily on the edges.

The butterfly was cut and embossed with Spellbinders Shapabilities. After coloring it in yellows and pinks I applied the gold Liquid pearls to the ouside edges and the yellow Stickles to the middle. The accents on the wings have a little bit of Icicle Stickles too.

This card was a lot of fun to do, I’m loving using the Cricut with the Copics! We bought Danielle a huge wooden briefcase with crayons, pastels, watercolors, pencils, and tons of MARKERS. You’ll never believe what she is doing…she is putting them in order, “you know like your markers Mommy, I’m organizing them in special places with the colors together.” She has been coveting Mommy’s markers, so I thought if I got her a spectacular set of her own that she’d leave mine alone!

This card is for my youngest daugher Raeleigh who is turning three soon. I’ve been working on this card a while and just finished it up last night.

I started by cutting a 5 x 7 card base and folding it so it would fit in my Cuttlebug. Then I used square Nestabilities to cut a scalloped hole in the front of the card. Next I cut a 5 x 7 piece of glitter stock and backed the inside front of the card. I then stamped the Disney stamp with black ink on a nice heavyweight paper from Bristol. After coloring the image with Copic markers I cut it out and embossed it with the next size down.

I’ve noticed that some people are thinking the baby/stork card I did was done with patterned paper. So, I want to be clear, the “3? was cut on the same white Bristol paper with Alphalicious at 3 inches. I stamped the three with a variety of flower stamps, leaving room for the bee. While coloring the “3? I emphasized pinks/purples since the card is for a girl and picked up the same colors from the Disney stamp.

The bee is cut at 1 inch from Walk in My Garden. First I colored the black areas with Copic’s pigment ink multiliner. Because I used pigment ink I could color the yellow stripes without being afraid it would bleed. This pen is also good for touching up a stamp that didn’t quite stamp well. I used Icicle Stickles for the wings and Black Diamond for the antenaes and tail.

I used 3D Zots to adhere everything, giving it a nice dimensional look, especially with the bee.

I had a lot of fun doing this card because most of the time cricut cuts are done in layers of colored paper. I think the idea of cutting things in white and coloring it like this opens all kinds of new creative possibilities!

Here is another one of my photos from the car window yesterday. The sunset was very pretty and when I shot it I had this bird stamp set in mind.

I opened the photo in Photoshop and adjusted the contrast and saturation. Then I applied the “Palette Knife” artistic filter. And before printing it on a color printer, I cropped it to an interesting portion of the sky, keeping in mind where I wanted to apply the stamped embossing effects.

After trimming down the sky I applied the stamps, using VersaMark and Stampendous’ “Midnight Black Opaque.” The bird and sentiment is from My Sentiments Exactly, “Little Birdie.” And the branch is from Hero Arts, “Birds & Branch.” The Hero Arts branch is actually a 12? stamp, perfect for scrapbookers, one of my favorite finds from CHA in July.

The paper is the brand new “Ambrosia” from Basic Grey in the 6 inch card makers pad. I thought it turned out very appropriately for a masculine thank-you card and know just who I’ll be giving it to!

Yesterday I made the embossed pumpkins by applying Tim Holtz’s spiced marmalade distress ink to the front of the Cuttlebug folder. But I did not end up using it and it was too cute not to use. It turned out to be a nice “tone-on-tone” effect with the peach colored card stock.

This card was going to have some Spellbinder Shapeabilities metallic embossed leaves on top of the “stripes.” But it looked too cute just like it is. So, now I have five beautiful leaves to use in yet another fall card!

I’m so excited my Copic marker certification class is right around the corner! Next Friday I’ll be in Kansas City, learning from the master, Marianne. Yesterday’s card was done with Copic markers, but with the exception of the baby it was pretty much just colored in. I decided I better try something more challenging before the class so that I know enough about my limitations to ask good questions. One of the things I have to ask her about is the colorless blender. It did wonders for putting highlights back in the dress, but it also causes bleeding, so I’m sure I’m doing something wrong!

I tried to do the little girl’s dress in BV00, BV04 and BV08. But I found them too difficult to blend. So I ended up using BVOO as my base and shaded it with C3 and C5 in the grey family. Then I also used B32 in some of the very shaded areas of her dress. All in all I used way too many markers to list here, probably around twenty.

After I finished coloring the stamp (Stamps Happen: Collecting Sea Shells) I cut it out with Nestabilities. And matted it with purple from the DCWV Glitter Stack. I created the embossed background by applying Milled Lavender Distress Ink to the front of the Cuttlebug folder. The sentiment “Hello” is from Cuttlebug, I outlined it with a white Inkessentials gel pen.

Sweet and simple, well aside from the illustration which took me several hours last night!

It has been an eventful week or so for me, I packed up my office and will officially be included in the next unemployment stats. I was pleasantly surprised with the ease of Oklahoma’s enrollment process! So now that I’ve taken care of that and enrolling us in my husband’s insurance I can play a little.

I started this card last weekend but it took three tries till I was happy with execution of the concept. First I created a stencil with “New Arrival” in Cricut’s Design Studio software and then I adhered the negative cut to a heavy weight stamp-friendly paper. I gathered every small flower I could find in my acrylic stamp collection, which are a must for this technique so that you can be sure you are not stamping on top of another flower. Originally the entire image was to be this stenciled toile effect but the poor baby just didn’t look right with a flowered face. I ended up cutting the baby’s head and feet from the positive cut and using it as a mask while stamping and coloring the flowers. Leaving the stencil in place until the entire image is stamped and colored will help you get a nice clean line. I had just the perfect Peachy Keen stamp for baby’s mad face.

Every family member that has seen the card design has asked, “why is the baby crying?” So I decided a title on the card might be in order. It is entitled “The Sweetest Sound” because I wanted to represent the moment every parent anxiously awaits, baby’s first cry. This card is for a dear friend who has a baby who met Jesus the same day as our little Gabe was stillborn.

Gabe’s little sister Raeleigh (see below) is the inspiration for this card. She cried the moment her head was out of the womb. I had just finished praying that I wouldn’t have to wait very long to hear her cry. My doctor was amazed she was crying before she even got her out. I told her about my prayer. God is good.

I’m hoping this card will be a cherished keepsake for my friend’s newest little girl, who arrived safe and sound a couple of weeks ago.

This verse is from Psalms 22:3. It was ingrained on my heart through a children’s song, “Clap Your Hands”, by our friend Elizabeth Montgomery. She also co-wrote a song for our stillborn son Gabe, originally a poem by his Grandfather. It was through this heartbreaking experience that I learned about the sometimes sacrifice of praise.

This photo was taken out at his property, I converted it to Sepia by following these instructions. The tires are from an old ropes course that he built when my husband was in Scouts. I really like the lighting in this photo, for me it signifies the light within, the Holy Spirit, and the three tires are symbolizing the Trinity. Of course, the water represents continual cleansing of our relationship with God.

Sometimes we feel very separated from God though, and that is where I think the verse holds the key!

The verse was designed in Cricut Design Studio, using the font Alphalicious. Then I applied some card-stock to Therm O Web Mounting Adhesive and cut it out with the Cricut. It required the multi-cut setting and three cuts. After embossing the verse with a metallic copper I applied it to the photo and then used Copic’s Warm Grey markers to add a subtle shadow effect to the letters.

The card is made of a butcher block card stock and I distressed it with Dew Drop’s “Cosmic Copper.”

Last night my husband said, your readers are probably wanting you to get back to scrapbooking! So today I thought I’d use my photography to create a card.

I printed the photo on matte paper so it wouldn’t be shiny and compete with the embossed lettering. The edges of the photo and card are distressed with Dew Drop’s “Galaxy Gold.”

This verse is Psalms 46:10, one of my favorites when I’m in a contemplative mood and enjoying nature. It is typed in Alphalicious except for “and” which is word art from Storybook. The type was welded in Cricut Design Studio software. The new nudge up and down arrows made resizing my grouped letters for placement on the photo a breeze!

After cutting it out on a dark yellow card stock I laid it down on a scrap piece of paper and pressed a Versamark stamp pad on it several times until well covered. Then I embossed it with Stampendous “Jeweled Gold.”

Simple and elegant!

Yesterday it was raining here in Oklahoma, like much of the country, thanks to Ike. So, I spent my free time playing with my new Copic Markers. I’m not finished with the card design, but I’m using the in-progress stamped images to show off my camera.

Now, it is important to be clear that I’ve re-sized these to 72 dpi which is WAY under the original resolution for either camera. But, that is what I normally do to process shots for my blog and I want to see what kind of improvement the camera adds to the workflow.

This first shot was taken with my old Canon. The stamp is “Party Animals” by Penny Black. My daughter’s Kindergarten class is called the “Giraffes”, and I thought I’d make a batch of birthday cards. First of all, on my Copics, I am loving having 72 colors to choose from! And they are a dream to work with. You will be hearing a lot more from me as I learn to work with the Copics. In fact, I’m taking a certification class from the famous Product Manager “Marianne” in a few weeks. I’m showing six sets of colors here. I colored the dog in warm yellows, the giraffe in cool yellows and browns, the turtle in a wide variety of greens, the present and ladybug in pinks and reds, the balloon in blues and purples, and the cat in blues and greys.

This second shot was taken with my new Nikon DSLR. In the full resolution images the noise factor in the Canon was very obvious. And the level of sharpness improvement with the Nikon was easy to see. Now that they are both downsized to 72 dpi a discerning eye can still tell which photo is better.  Look at the focus especially on the eyes of the giraffes and look at the noise in the wall on either side of the illustrations.

In the close up images it is very apparent which is taken with the Nikon. Now, the Nikon does have manual focus capability and I thought I’d have to use it. But, it turns out that both of these shots were taken with auto-focus, and I didn’t even have to coax the Nikon along!

See the clarity difference?! And the color difference?! I’ll be doing a ton less tweaking of the color and contrast in Photoshop! The only problem is that now you can see where I colored outside the line! I didn’t even realize I’d done that on the giraffe or I would have cleaned it up with a white gel pen. That will teach me to start wearing my glasses. I only need them to read medicine bottles, well and color I suppose.

The reason for the improvement is not the pixel ratio of the camera. The biggest difference is the sensor size of the cameras. Any DSLR would make this impact in low light situations where a flash would blow out your highlights. But, I’m quite happy with my Nikon choice!