Shaped Cards for Crazy 4 Challenges

For my second week hosting over at Crazy 4 Challenges, I decided we should make shaped cards. Anything other than a plain circle, rectangle or square. I had lots of ideas but then I realized I’d already made this card that I loved!

When I made it, I was experimenting with some new supplies. The Rebecca Lace background from Simon Says Stamp and some gorgeous new Daniel Smith paints. If you like to watercolour, you MUST get yourself some professional paints, just a few at a time, when they are on sale. Preferably Daniel Smith ones. They truly are amazing! I also finally got myself a few Silver Brush watercolour brushes. They are soooo much better than the ones I’d been using. I had a variety of brushes from value lines from Curry’s to expensive ones from Michaels (coupon baby!) and even some from the dollar store. I’ve always wondered how someone could paint something then come back to the first part and add pigment when in my world, that paint would already be dry! Well, it’s because Silver Brushes hold an enormous amount of water! Oh, now I get it! That’s how their paint is still wet! Such a revelation!

The colours I used here were Amythyst Genuine, yes, the actual gemstone is used to make the paint, Duochrome Oceanic which is an aqua with gold shimmer in it, Rhodonite Genuine, Bronzite Genuine, Prussian Green and Cobalt Teal Blue. Most of these are shimmery which looks so amazing with the platinum embossing powder I used to emboss the lace image. I used multiple layers of the same powder to colour my Thinking of You die cut. The stamp is actually square but I decided I preferred it trimmed into a scalloped circle.

I hope you have some awesome ideas for shaped cards. If you join us over at the C4C blog, don’t forget to come back here and leave me a comment so you are entered in my giveaway!

Enjoy, Rebecca

Roses Sympathy Card

A dear friend of mine’s mother died back in the Philippines and poor thing wasn’t able to go back in time for the funeral. She will be going just not right away. She displays my cards for months or longer so this one had to be a really good one!

The colours aren’t quite right, a bit too yellow, but I had to make sacrifices to get the white to look white. The background colour is Soft blush which is practically the same as pink pirouette, much pinker than it looks. I shamelessly CASEd Debbie Olson so I have to give credit where credit is due. This is one of the stampy-est cards I’ve very made! It was super fun though!

Lining up these stamps takes some practice but when I got these stamps I practiced until I got it right. Then I kept the best ones in the case with the stamp set and marked the points I found easiest to look at while lining up. I marked these same points in the actual stamp too. Now I look at the stamped images I saved for a few seconds and I’m ready to go!

Choosing colours is hard too. This time I got brave and used a bright red (poppy for PTI fans, real red for SU!), berry sorbet and blush. I was surprised that it was bright but not garish. I save combos I like on the back of the same practice stamped images. I also like autumn rose with blush, stamped off once for one layer.

I pretty much copied Debbie’s card by looking at the photo so you can do the same by looking at mine! Foam dot layering is the key along with not adhering the edges so you can curl them forward slightly to give a realistic look. Thanks for visiting!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: PTI
Ink: chocolate, melon berry, chartreuse, moss-PTI, pink pirouette, real red-SU! antique linen distress
Paper: ivory, blush CS-PTI
Accessories: labels 8 Nestabilities, foam dots- Jody Morrow, silk ribbon-May Arts

World Card Making Day!!

Welcome to my WCMD post! I’ve saved several cards I’ve made lately just for this special occasion! So sit back and enjoy! (Check out the end of the post for what’s coming up on my blog soon.)

First off a little card inspired by Jennifer McGuire or maybe Kristina Werner. But if Jenn made it the sentiment would be black and if Kristina made it there would be dash lines somewhere or rounded corners so I suppose that makes it all mine!

I cut apart a SSS heart die to get just one heart to cut it from each of two banners. The background was sponged with broken china ink over the SSS Moroccan stencil.

Next up is a Copic coloured card I spent a TON of time on. Not only did the colouring take a long time but the card design did too.

It’s a surprise pop up card but I call it a tag slider card. I changed hte measurements of the tutorial quite a bit though as my card is larger. Cuz when you pull on the tag, the front panel slides up to reveal a message underneath and a place on the tag for a message!

Cool right?

The Copic colouring looks smoother IRL. Strange, soft colours usually fades completely on a computer screen. In this case, it actually shows up more strongly! Weird!

I made this card for a challenge on Swap-Bot to go green and use coffee sleeves. I love the tiny corrugations and that one side of the cardboard is already removed. I die cut the heart and painted the ridges white. Then I used Versamark to add gold embossing to the edges.

And last but not least, two ATCs. They are still cards right? First, a mixed media piece inspired by a canvas I did for my bathroom. I’ll be posting that soon so if you are new to my blog and want to make sure you see it, be sure to subscribe or bookmark me!

I used a kraft cardstock base and added some sticky back canvas. Then I added two colours of turquoise, ivory and yellow-green Golden fluid acrylic paint. Then I dry brushed on some gold. I stamped the shell in Archival ink and added the ribbon and button when dry.

This one was sponged with a rainbow of distress ink colours on vintage sheet music paper. Then I added ink direct to paper on white cardstock so the colours would match the sponging when I punched the butterflies. And I added Copic markers to the centers. They are glued on their middles only so the wings can be lifted up.

Have a great WCMD. I hope you enjoy clicking on all the links and I apologize that this post wasn’t up right away. Coming up soon on my blog: how to make multiples of a project-3 parts, preparing, die cutting, stamping; 2 mixed media canvases and how to make a super easy super-hero cape! I also have a few jewellery projects to show you! Make sure you come back now, ya hear?

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
(Heart Happy)
Stamps: SSS
Ink: Memento London Fog, Distress Broken China, Scattered Straw
Paper: white CS-PTI, DP-MME
Accessories: foam dots-Jody Morrow, Rock Candy Distress Stickles, SSS banner, heart dies, stencil, lifestyle crafts label dies

(Thanks-Tag Slider)
Stamps: PTI Thanks all Ways, Flourishes Hollyhocks
Ink: Memento black, night of navy-SU!, HA-Field Greens, Frayed burlap, antique linen distress
Paper: Kraft, vanilla, moss CS-PTI, white CS-XPress it, DP-MME, vintage music paper
Accessories: Cropadile, 1/2”, 1 3/8” circle punch-SU!, Ornate ovals, Rose Creations dies-Spellbinders, mini scalloped punch-EK success, foam dots, Copic markers

(Vintage Hearts)
Ink: vintage photo, antique linen distress ink, Versamark
Paper: Trousseau 7 Gypsies, kraft, vanilla CS-PTI, coffee sleeves
Accessories: SSS banner, heart dies, PTI heart die, white paint, gold EP-SU!, MOP button-ebay, lace-vintage, flower-Jesse James buttons, foam dots

(Sea Mixed Media ATC)
Stamps: SU!
Ink: cobalt Archival ink
Paper: Kraft CS-PTI
Accessories: Golden Fluid Acrylic Paints, sticky back canvas-Ranger, MOP button-ebay, ribbon-stash, MS butterfly punch
In case you are wondering, the shell with the slit in it is a name holder from a wedding store.

(Rainbows, Butterflies and Music ATC)

Watermelon Card for Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

Welcome to another Papertrey Ink Blog Hop. This month the focus was luscious, mouth-watering summer fruit colour combos. I was missing many of the colours of inks and papers used in the combos so this truly was a challenge for me!

First I had planned on using this one and omitting the new leaf which I DO NOT like. The challenge did say we didn’t have to use every colour. I planned to make a 3-D, triple-scoop ice cream cone with dies and stamp some gorgeous berry sorbet and GOLD! swirls behind. Oh yeah! But I had NO harvest gold paper. Maybe the colour is too new to be in my multi pack I bought and rely on heavily? I’m still switching over from SU! to PTI as my main source of cardstock. I have no scraps either and don’t remember using any as card bases (the only way I’d not have any scraps) so I guess that must be it. I will have to write down my idea (I guess i just did, didn’t I? hee hee) and make it later!

I usually get to the card right away, sorry! Here it is finally! The colour and inspiration photo is below. I don’t usually take a lot of inspiration from colour challenge photos but I was kind of stumped on a way to use these colours especially since I don’t have any raspberry fizz, limeade ice or new leaf ink.

I hope you enjoyed my card! Please keep in touch by subscribing by email or adding my blog to your feed reader of choice. All the options are at the top of my sidebar. Enjoy the rest of the blog hop.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Sweet Life, BB-Hearts-PTI
Ink: Ranger Archival black, PTI white, frayed burlap Distress ink
Paper: new leaf, hibiscus, raspberry-PTI
Accessories: white EP-Hero Arts, white pastel pencil, foam dots-Jody Morrow, lace, gems-stash, dies-Lifestyle crafts

Last Week’s Mojo Cards

So I finally get around to making some cards using a sketch and even within the actual week it was published. I often use sketches long after they are published if they fit the stamps or stickers or image I want to use. But did I remember to blog them and enter them? Of course not! Pregnancy brain is my only excuse!

This card was for friends of ours, a lovely couple who had an early anniversary party for us. We are celebrating 14 years on the 25th! Considering we only knew each other and dated for less than 6 months, I think we’ve probably beat some pretty amazingly high odds together. My husband is actually the only guy I’ve ever even kissed. Isn’t that sweet?!!

I got to use the new Hero Arts stamps that come with matching dies, how cool is that! The dies are unique in that they have the cutting blade right at the inner edge so it is very easy to see through the center and line up accurately. You can see how close I got in the photo above! The flower is a bit off but pretty good for a first time.

This card is a sympathy card I started ages ago. A friend’s MIL died of cancer at a relatively young age 2 months ago, what a shame. I decided to go with a shabby chic design as I haven’t done much of it lately. I made the  rose with a rolled flower die, cut the doily and tag, stamped the tag and that’s where I left it for way too long. I mean, it isn’t fun to make a sympathy card anyways and I started to get the favours and invites ready for a spa party I was having and this got set aside.

Incidentally, the tag die was too short for the sentiment so I carefully placed the die in my Cuttlebug plates so that only 2/3 of it cut. Then I moved the die across the paper so when I cut the other end, the die cut was longer than if I cut it all at once. I’ve done it before and it always works quite well! I may have to do a video on that at some point. Just be careful when you cut the second time that you don’t allow the plates to cut the first end or you will  mess it up. Let me know if you are interested in a video!

In case you are wondering, the card is made of two unconnected cardstock circles; doily is glued to the back of the card front. Then the card back is scored about 3/4” from the top and adhered to the card front, above the score line only, with the doily sandwiched in between. I had to use some pretty strong adhesive but it worked really very well.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
HOSPITALITY CARD
Stamps: PTI-Homemade, flower-Hero Arts
Ink: vintage photo Distress, celery, rose red, regal rose-SU!
Paper: DP Restoration-Crate, yellow DP-stash, kraft, black CS-SU!
Accessories: embossing folder-Cuttlebug, gold edging pen-Pilot, punch-MS, foam dots-Jody Morrow, pearls-Kaisercraft and Dollarama, Matching Hero Arts dies

SHABBY CHIC SYMPATHY
Stamps: JustRite
Ink: antique linen, vintage photo Distress, Artichoke-SU!
Paper: Basic Grey Perhaps, pink pirouette, celery, white CS-SU!
Accessories: Spellbinders dies, doily-Wilton, silk ribbon-May Arts, pearls-Dollarama, scalloped edge punch-SU!, foam dots-Jody Morrow

Baby Onesie Favour for Taylored Expression Blast from the Past Blog Hop

The theme this month is Trick or Sweet. Since I don’t celebrate Halloween I decided to go with Sweet. I’ve got baby on the brain of course, being almost 7 months pregnant, so a baby shower favour seemed like a no brainer. And I won a TE baby set a couple months ago making it even easier!

If you don’t visit my blog on a regular basis you may want to subscribe or visit again as I will be doing a tutorial on how to make this favour. It’s pretty easy but I’ll list the sizes of circles to use and the measurements of the sleeves etc. You can get two from each sheet of 8.5x11” cardstock.

I would have used blue and white jelly beans but I didn’t have any so this is filled with a roll of unwrapped Sweet Tarts minus the pink and orange ones. You could use any candy you want of course. Blue and white M&Ms could be cool too. Or blue FIZZY BATH SALTS would be a calorie-conscious option. They are easy and pretty cheap to make, just click on the highlighted text above.

If you are very observant, you may have noticed a little blue paperclip sticking out from the side of the sleeve. I wanted to be able to undo the favour and allow it to lay flat to make a template later so I used paperclips to hold it together temporarily while I photographed it.

I used stars from two different sets, Hanging Out and Bringing Home baby, cut them away from the other stamps they were attached to and used them to background stamp the onesie. The sheep and turtle were cut apart from their stamps too.

I hope if you enjoyed this project you will visit again!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: TE Bringing Home Baby, Hanging Out
Ink: Bashful blue, navy-SU!, Memento black
Paper: bashful, brocade blue CS-SU!
Accessories: blue brads, circle, label 1 Nesties, 1 1/4” circle punch-SU!, Copics W3,5, Y21,35,YG63, G21,24, foam dots-Jody Morrow

 

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Doodle Pantry! I’m Baaaack! Iris Card

(LOOKING FOR MY OCC CARD? SCROLL DOWN!)

Yeah! I was invited to join the Doodle Pantry team again for this term! I am so privileged and excited to be using Laurie’s gorgeous designs again! She draws beautiful landscapes and flowers, cartoon critters and adorably realistic baby animals that are so cute you just want them to come to life so you can hug them! Some images even come with several of their own coordinating background papers and some are colourized for super quick paper crafting!

There are new releases today in the store so be sure to visit! One of them was this gorgeous iris.

Beautiful right? I figured everyone else would colour it traditionally using white and purple with a yellow throat so I went with a very pale pink one. Yes, I checked, they do exist!

I find I have trouble matching DP to Laurie’s flowers because they are so delicate and lovely I don’t want to overshadow their beauty with busy DP so I often go with a fair bit of a neutral. The DP I did use was in small amounts, some solid and patterned paper from the Kioshi pack. But since I used so much neutral, I added some subtle texture with an embossing folder and a shaped base.

You can see samples from all of the new releases here at the Doodle Pantry store. If you are interested in showing off your creations or just chatting about Doodle Pantry, feel free to visit us at our CDAC (Crafter’s Digital Art Center) group. DP at CDAC. Questions about how to use, colour, resize, combine or print digi stamps? It’s all there!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Image: Iris-Doodle Pantry
Ink: sage-SU!
Paper: white CS (base)-SU!, white CS (image)-Taylored Expressions, DP-Basic Grey Kioshi
Accessories: buttons, twine-PTI, ribbon-American Crafts, label 1 Nesties, Cuttlebug Embossing Folder, Copics-R000,11,20,22,32, Y21, G21, YG62,67, BV000,05

Last Minute New Home Card

My mom came by to visit last week and just before she needed to leave, she says, “Oh, actually I need a new house card for someone I’m seeing tomorrow!” Seriously!?!? Now it isn’t like she doesn’t understand how long it takes to make a card. But I guess she just forgot to ask sooner! So here is what you get when you have no time to do anything special and when what comes to your mind first is what goes!

Oh and did I mention this card was for a GUY!!! Yeesh!! I used some ANCIENT SU! DP for the background-Very masculine. The roof is made of woodgrain stamped and lightly sponged (because I sponged AFTER making it) cardstock. The window and doors are stamped in chocolate using PTI’s Home Made stamp set. I sponged the door panels for some depth. The door knob was cut from silver shimmer paper.

I gotta tell you, getting the letters centered on that BARELY large enough tag was tricky. Took me like 10 minutes because I needed to cut a frame out of vellum to help line it up… I do like the end product. Not love, but like. My mom was pretty impressed though. I just wished I’d had more time. Maybe the door would have opened to reveal the sentiment or…

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: PTI Woodgrain, Home Made, JustRite fonts
Ink: cocoa, chocolate, hunter, sage-SU!
Paper: hunter, cocoa, chocolate, ivory, silver CS-SU!, DP-SU!
Accessories: tag die-Spellbinders, sage marker-SU!, foam dots- Jody Morrow

Man’s Shirt Thank You Card

My mom buys nearly all of my kid’s clothes. She loves going to Osh Kosh, Heart Strings and Carter’s. We even have a onesie with “If they could only stay little until their Carter’s wear out.” Remember that old ad jingle? They are such cute clothes! We just got a huge bag full of jammies, jeans, pants, shirts, jackets, socks-AWESOME! So this ‘card’ is a thank you for all of it.

This was pretty easy to make, Martha Stewart has instructions but the diagrams were really small on my iPhone and clicking didn’t enlarge them. So I found a site with Hawaiian Origami shirt instructions.

This is how the shirt looks without the tag in the way. Isn’t it cute? Below is how the inside looks. I used scraps of the same paper, reverse side, and wrote a note from 2 year old Spencer to his nana. Jameson also wrote a note on another little scrap. They tuck in quite nicely and I’m pretty sure they won’t fall out.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: JustRite Stampers Trompe upper and lower case
Ink: Chocolate-SU!
Paper: DP and confetti white CS-SU!
Accessories: gold cord-SU!, buttons-Sassafrass, labels one Nestabilities

Wisteria 100 for Whimsical Wednesdays

I just love the sketches these kids come up with! Thanks Madelynn. And another shaped card-YEAH!!!! (yep, I shoulda coloured the flower next to the verse ***SIGH***)

 

Did you enter to win “Down by the Pond” by The Greeting Farm by making a project based on the inspiration photo last week? Be sure to visit the Whimsical Wednesdays blog to see if you won! Once again, we would love to see what you can create with this sketch! Upload to your blog of PCP or SCS with keyword DDSC6. I can’t wait to see your work and that of the DAREDEVILS!! If you need more inspiration, be sure to visit the team and leave ‘em some love!! We are all playing except Debbie.

If you are wondering how I get a shaped card without any flat spots, check out this post – Shaped Card Tutorial. This is also for Verve’s current challenge. “We'd love for you to play along with us and show us your card or project focused on encouraging words or friendship. Verve stamps are not required, but if you've got 'em, why not show 'em a little love? ;)”
Want to play? Click HERE.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Paper: Wisteria-Basic Grey, Eggplant CS-SU!, white CS-Taylored Expressions
Ink: memento black, eggplant-SU!
Stamps: Verve
Accessories: Prima Flowers, K&Co rhinestones, foam dots-Jody Morrow, Gold paint pen-Pilot, Kaisercraft pearls

Cards for Kate – Whimsical Wednesday!

The cards I am showing today are for Kate’s brother and sister using this week’s Whimsical Wednesday sketch (I love shaped cards so much I did two)! In case you are wondering (and haven’t heard already!), Kate is a 5 year old girl with cancer. Jennifer McGuire is collecting cards for her and her family to help them through this troubling time. I had already bookmarked her post to help out BEFORE I heard that there are nifty prizes to be won for sending in cards. For far, I believe the prize count is up to over 50! She is constantly posting updates so visit her blog to find out more or click on the ‘Cards for Kate’ link on her sidebar. Please consider sending a card for this worthy cause.

This first one is for her brother Will. I hope I didn’t use too much glitter but it was so pretty, I just couldn’t stop! He is only 4 so it should be OK. Maybe my challenge to myself to use more glitter and shimmer has unleashed a glitter monster!! I’m so excited that the glitter actually shows in this picture! My photography class is paying off!

Boy, it was hard trying to figure out how to get a lily in the middle of this card to satisfy at least one of the sketch layers. With no die or template, you aren’t going to believe how I did it. I Googled lilies and figured out they look somewhat like two 5 pointed-petal flowers overlapped. I have a punch for that shape but only about 1/2” wide. So I punched two and overlapped them. I glued them to the back of the sheet of paper I wanted to use and started measuring out from each point exactly 1”. Then from each groove between the flowers, I measured out 3/4”. I drew a slightly curving line from each point to the next and cut it out. I think it worked out quite well! I flipped it and added the yellow overlapped flowers to the middle and I was done, that part at least! I would have added another petal layer but I was running out of time for hubby to watch the baby.

Here’s a story for ya! I wasn’t quite done when he went to bed so I let the baby into my craft room for a couple of minutes to colour while I took pictures. I was just finishing when I turned around to find an entire jar of glitter all over my chair, table, baby and floor! I let out a shriek and tossed him into our gated kitchen/family room. I managed to salvage most of the glitter thank heavens. Boy this baby gives me a run for my money!

This one is for Kate’s sister Olivia. Again with the glitter! But doesn’t it look awesome! The wings are cut from shimmery white paper too as is the tag. I forgot to dry the ink before handling the tag so I apologize for the smudge, I hope she doesn’t notice! The monkey is double popped up and the wings are single popped up. In case you are wondering, my card for Kate will publish on Thursday and I am going to use a card I already made for the parents. Of course, you do not have to make cards for everyone, you can choose just one person and send a single card or one addressed to the whole family if you like.

Thank you to Madelynn for this fun challenge. I sure hope you will play along this week! Please show us what you can do with this AWESOME sketch. Post to your blog or PCP/SCS with keyword DDSC2 (the sketch is incorrect again this week) and don’t forget to link to Whimsical Wednesdays so we can more easily find your project! I hope you will take the time to visit all the DareDevils this week. Playing this week is: EVERYONE! So check out the sidebar for all the links!! Be sure to check out Whimsical Wednesdays to see if you won the blog candy from last week!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE – Frog
Stamps: SU!
Ink: Memento black, banana, not quite navy-SU!
Paper: Taylored Expressions-white CS, green, yellow-SU!
Accessories: Glitter-Art Institute, flower punch-SU!, foam dots-Jody Morrow, dew drops-Robin’s Nest, Copics

RECIPE – Monkey
Stamps: Taylored Expressions, sentiment-SU!
Ink: Memento brown
Paper: Wild Asparagus Designer CS, chocolate and shimmery white CS-SU!
Accessories: glitter-Art Institute, foam dots-Jody Morrow, Copics, Cuttlebug tag die