Rainbow Fish

I picked up a cute little fish set from the $1 bin at Joann's this past week.  Sometimes I get lucky and find a great set.  I had also been wanting the boundary waters border punch, and this set was the perfect excuse to get it.  (Not that I need another punch.  Just wait 'til you see the picture of the punch wall in my craft cave.)

As I'm still trying to get my cave organized, I was also making color swatches of all the Twinkling H2Os I have, and decided to use them for my card.

Isn't this fish the cutest?  He looks just like Rainbow Fish minus his large glittery scales.  This one glitters, but in a more subtle way.

I cut the circle out with a Nestabilities die, then used the border punch on the top.  I made the fish by dropping various colors of Twinkling H2Os on wet watercolor paper so they would run together and feather a little.  After the paper was completely dry, I stamped the fish and cut him out.

The fish's bubbles were made by gently touching my aquapainter to the dried paper and letting the water drops dry naturally.

Supplies used:
Stamps - Studio 112, All Night Media (seaweed)
Paper - GKD PL white, Canson 140 lb cold press watercolor paper
Ink - Memento black
Accessories - Twinkling H2Os, paintbrush, aquapainter, circle Nestabilities, Big Shot, boundary waters border punch, SAMJ, dimensionals

Hope you're having a great day!

K

A Little Behind

Oh, how I wish I had one.  Get it - a little behind?. Sorry, I'm feeling a little punchy today. Not sure why, but I just am.

I am behind in posting to my blog. I have a lot of excuses, too, but I'm sure you don't want to hear them all, so I'll just get to my post.

This first card was made for last weeks CAS challenge to make a sympathy card.

I tried out some new ink I recently purchased, Versamagic chalk inks, and boy do I like them. The colors are really soft and muted, and they dry fairly quickly. I thought the soft colors would be perfect for a sympathy card.

(One of my kitties is biting my hands as I type this. Motorboat always comes running to my lap when she hears my keyboard and bites my hands very gently until I pet her. Silly kitty!)

Back to my card.

Supplies used:
Stamps - PTI Turning a New Leaf, SU Sincere Salutations
Paper - GKD PL white and ivory, crumb cake
Ink - Versamagic chalk inks Aspen and wheat
Accessories - SAMJ


And here is my card for today's CAS92 challenge. It is a color challenge to use soft pink, old olive, kraft, and white with Marina mist as an optional additional color.

I told you I was feeling punchy today! The idea for this card came to me when I got the owl punch a couple months ago. A previous attempt at getting it on paper failed, so I gave up for a while. This color challenge seemed perfect for it, so I gave it another try.

The word hoot and the boy's eyes are up on pop dots for a little emphasis.

Can you tell who hooted?

Supplies used:
Stamps - PSX Antique alpha upper and lower, PTI Out on a Limb, Owl bellies
Paper - GKD PL white, pink pirouette, old olive, kraft, marina mist, so saffron, black, Raspberry Tart DSP
Ink - kraft, old olive, marina mist
Accessories - 2-step owl punch, daubers, pop dots


Finally, here is one more card I made for this week's CAS challenge. I opted not to use marina mist on this one.

This was inspired by a card in the current SU catalog. Several things were changed to make it my own. The butterfly was antiqued by sponging softly with kraft ink.

Supplies used:
Stamps - SU The Art of Life, So Many Sayings
Paper - pink pirouette, old olive, kraft, ivory (instead of white)
Ink - kraft
Accessories - butterfly and border punches, dauber, dimensionals

If you haven't checked out the CAS challenge on Splitcoast yet, make sure you take a peek in the challenge gallery.  There are some real beauties with this color combo!

Now that I'm almost over my nasty cold and our kitty, Moonshine, is going to be ok (she had some issues with her eyes but isn't going to lose her vision), I will try to get back to posting regularly.

Make it a great day!

K

OLW27 Holiday Card

I'm sorry it's been a while since I've posted.  I have been fighting my second nasty cold of the season, and haven't been doing much stamping.  I've been sleeping instead.  (And irrigating my sinuses - yuck!).  I decided I had to stamp something for the OLW challenge to get me out of my rut.

This week the challenge was to make a one layer holiday card suitable for the inmates in the North Dakota State Penitentiary to send to their friends or family.  One of Susan's blog readers heads up a group that makes cards to send to the inmates, and her letter to Susan inspired this challenge.  In addition to being a one layer card, we were not to use any metal (wire, brads, etc.), gemstones or pearls, and limit the glitter.  We could use ribbon, but I chose not to.

Here is the beauty I came up with.

The scored frame was an afterthought that totally makes this card.  (At least for me).  I like the clean lines of the card and scoring with the fancy font of the sentiment.  A single gold star adds just enough interest.

I am bummed I sold my long rectangle Nestabilities sets because I wanted to use one to emboss the frame.  I didn't think I used them enough to justify keeping them, and I have 'needed' them ever since.  I can't tell you how many times I've eyed them at Hobby Lobby when I have a coupon burning a hole in my pocket, but they never make it home with me.  Something else always wins out, and I end up eyeing them the next time I go.  I know I don't need long rectangle Nestabilities - it's pretty easy to cut a rectangle - so we'll see how long I last before I cave.  : )

Supplies used:
Stamps - Many Merry Messages, Patterned Pines
Paper - GKD PL white
Ink - Cherry cobbler, Encore gold
Accessories - Scor Buddy, SAMJ

If you haven't checked out Susan's blog for the challenge, go there now to get all the details.  Let's allow these inmates to send some love to their loved ones this holiday season.

Make it a great day!

K

OLW 26 - Black, White, and Red All Over

Today's OLW challenge is to use black, white, and red only on your card.  At first  I wasn't crazy about the challenge, but as the day went on, I started thinking about things I could do.  After I got home from teaching crochet club at the school today, I decided to play.

My first card is an example of what not to do.

The card is too big to have the flourish floating around in the middle of it.  Since there was so much space around the outside, I tried to fill it in with the flowers and ended up with too many.  It just looks weird and not cohesive at all.  I may end up cropping this one down to try to salvage it.

Here is my second attempt.

Ah, much better!  Having the flourish stamped off the edges of the paper just a little bit creates much better flow.  I was able to triangulate the flowers for a nice balanced look.  The sentiment stamped in the lower corner continues to balance the whole card.

Look what I just did.

Look familiar?  This is my first card cropped to 4 1/4" square.  See how it helps to have the image stamped off the side?  Once again the flowers are triangulated creating better balance without overpowering the design.  The flourish would look better if it were angled up a little more to fill in the gap at the top, but I think this was a great save.

Lesson learned.

Supplies used:
Stamps - Baroque Motifs, Small Script, Warm Words
Paper - GKD PL white
Ink - Memento black, cherry cobbler
Accessories - black rhinestones, SAMJ

Hope you're having a great day!

K

CAS90 Gingham!

This week's CAS challenge is ways to use gingham.  Once again I was stumped.  I didn't want to make a card and just tie a gingham ribbon on it.  I didn't want to make a baby card, either, even though babies and gingham go so well together.  I wanted to come up with something really creative using gingham.  Many thoughts came to mind, but executing them would have been a real challenge.

One thought was a checkered race flag.  I have no stamps for that, and my drawing skills aren't that skilled.  Another thought was a gingham tablecloth.  Once again, no stamps and lack of drawing skills.  A picnic with ants crawling around on a red and white checkered cloth - way too complicated.

What was I going to do?  I waited too late to start thinking about this week's challenge, and I was feeling the pressure.  So I slept on it.  And I made cards all night long.  In the morning when I told my husband I had been making cards all night, he replied "Literally or figuratively?"  He knows me well enough to know I'm not beyond getting up in the middle of the night to make cards.  Fortunately, I had slept all night, and the only cards I had made were in my dreams.  I had come up with some ideas, though.

This first card started out as a vertical card, but quickly turned into a horizontal layout.  I did something different with the gingham ribbon by pleating it, and I also die cut the end with a scallop die to match the scallop layer around the image.  I put a piece of regular ol' Scotch tape on the back of the ribbon before I die cut it so the ends wouldn't fray.

A little better than just tying gingham ribbon on a card.

This next card gave me migraines.  I knew exactly what I wanted to do, but it just wouldn't happen.  It took me hours and several walk-aways to make this stupid thing!

But I'm very pleased with how it turned out.  A different way to use gingham.

I still had one more idea that I wanted to put to the test.  While searching the galleries at SCS for ideas (is that cheating?), I came across a card made by Kittie that had a beautiful bow on it.  And she just happened to have a link to a tutorial on her blog on tying bows.  Beautiful bows need a wreath to go with them.  That led to this card.

This is much prettier IRL.  You can see the dimension much better, as there is a window on the front of the card and the sentiment is stamped on the inside.  That was really hard to capture in the photo.  My use of gingham on this card is just a bow, but I think the other elements make up for the simplicity of it.


Here is a little tutorial on how I made the wreath.

Punch out several (I used 24) branches with the MS branch punch.  Then make a ring with either 2 circle punches close in size, or with nestabilities, which is what I used here.  This will be the base of your wreath.

Pretend all those branches haven't been glued on yet.  :)

Glue just the last 3/8" of the branch to the ring, overlapping the branches as you go along the ring.

You can space them as close as you want depending on how full you want the wreath to be.  (Adjust the number of punched branches accordingly.)  Continue all the way around, and your last branch should fit right under the first one you glued on.  Set aside to dry.

Punch or die cut a circle on the front of your card where you want the wreath to be.

Very lightly trace the inside of the circle with a pencil on the inside of the card.  This will allow you to see where the sentiment should go.  Use a SAMJ to stamp the sentiment.  I embossed mine for a little extra shine.  Make sure your sentiment is good and dry before you erase the pencil lines.  When you think it's dry, wait another minute or so.  Don't ask me how I know this!

Now you are ready to adhere the wreath to the front of the card.  Apply glue to the back side of the wreath ring and center over the circle on the front of the card.  Attach your pretty bow, and you are done!

Ta-da!  Ain't it purty?

I hope you are inspired by some different ways to use gingham.  Sometimes it's good to think a little outside the box.

K

What Day Is It?

I spent all day yesterday not realizing it was Wednesday, my favorite card making day of the week (because it is OLW).  I don't know what day I thought it was, but it most certainly wasn't Wed.  My kids did make it to their regularly scheduled activities, though.  I'm thinking I need to catch up on my sleep!

Jennifer Styles is hosting the OLW challenges for a while on her blog, and this week it is The Birds and the Bees (and the Flowers and the Trees).  We are to use any combination of two of the above.

I immediately thought of the bee stamp in the In Full Bloom set, one of my all time favorites.  I make coasters with this set all the time, so I never thought of using it to make cards.  Until now.

When I was searching my stamps for a sentiment for this card, I came across this one in the Butterfly of Happiness set.  I loved the style of the font with the image, but I especially liked how it conveys the message of the image perfectly.  Bees certainly spread the love by pollenating all those flowers out there in the world.  Where would we be without bees?

Hungry!

(Ok, I'll stop answering my own questions.  It's just that I've been up for 3 hours and haven't eaten breakfast yet, and I am hungry.)

The bonus was I got to use my Copics to color it in!  After yesterday's post about using solid image stamps more frequently, I turn around and use something today that requires coloring.  I sure am consistent, aren't I?

I won't answer that one!

Supplies used:
Stamps - In Full bloom, Butterfly of Happiness
Paper - GKD PL white (120 lb as always - no Copic bleed-through)
Ink - Memento black
Accessories - Copics, SAMJ

Ok, ok, I'm going to go eat breakfast now.  Make it a great day!

K

A Very Quick Card

Once again, my favorite neutral color combo spoke to me - kraft and soft suede.  I made this card in just a few minutes tonight.  As much as I love to color, solid stamps are great for making really quick cards, and I am finding myself using them more and more often.

The hardest part about making this card was trying to get the ink from my markers from beading up and separating on the apple stamp.  I tried stamping it several times, cleaning it in between, but still couldn't get a good impression.  I finally inked it up with my red pad, removed the ink from the leaf and stem with a cotton swab, and stamped it without the leaf and stem.  Then I took my wasabi marker and drew the leaf and stem right on the card.

I could have stamped more apples on the tree, but I really wanted to emphasize the single falling apple so I just stamped one.  I love how it turned out.

Supplies used:

Stamps - PTI Falling Leaves

Paper - kraft (crumb cake)

Ink - soft suede, real red, wasabi

Accessories - wasabi marker

Off to unmount some more stamps...

K

CAS89 Inspired by Me!

This week's CAS challenge is a sketch inspired by a card I made while trying out for the CAS DT.  This card is the one we are using for inspiration.

I have to admit, nothing I thought of came close to the Wow! factor of my lighted bulb card, so I had to settle for these.

My in-laws lost their Golder Retriever, Hunter, unexpectedly this past week, so I made this card for them.  The top note takes the place of the drawn border.  I put another top note on the inside since the card base is so dark.  I love the look of kraft (crumb cake) and soft suede together.  They are a great neutral combo.

Supplies used:
Stamps - PTI Loss of Pet
Paper - Soft suede, crumb cake
Ink - Soft suede
Accessories - Tope note die, Big shot

This card doesn't really do anything for me.  I'm not sure if it's the colors or what, but I just don't like it.  Using cool colors for warm wishes probably wasn't a good idea.  Oh, well, it is what it is.   Here, I scored a frame instead of drawing one.

Supplies used:
Stamps - Jolly bingo bits, All year cheer I
Paper - Marina mist, white, daffodil
Ink - Basic grey
Accessories - Marina mist and daffodil markers, baker's twine, dimensionals, tag and small tag punches, Scor-pal

I am still working on getting my room put back together.  Boy, I have a lot of stuff!  I am really proud of myself for donating a stack of patterned paper 3" tall to my daughters Kindergarten class.  The teacher was so happy to get it.  No more paper stack packs for me!

I also took a little bit of a break from my unmounting adventure.  At this rate I think a couple months will be more like it!

Thanks for stopping by!

K

Thank Goodness for Scraps!

When I got home from work this past Tuesday, both of my kids were in my craft room making me cards.  The reason they were making them is another story for another time.  As I was helping them clean up their mess, I came across some scraps of paper they had cut off using decorative scissors.  As I laid them neatly in my hand to toss into the recycle bag, I looked at them and realized they would make a neat ground on a card.

And tonight, this card was born.

The scraps are just as they were.  I didn't have to modify anything except cut the excess off the edges of the card.  Isn't it cool?  It turned out just as I imagined.  It always surprises me when that happens!

I used this curly tree to balance all the lines in the paper.  I wasn't sure what sentiment I was going to use because this could be a happy tree, but since it is missing all its leaves, this sentiment seemed perfect.

The sentiment was curved slightly on my block to echo the slight curve of the ground.  It would have looked weird had I left it perfectly straight.

Supplies used:
Stamps - Hero Arts tree, GKD Tag Lines
Paper - GKD PL ivory,  DP unknown
Ink - Memento rich cocoa, Baja Breeze
Accessories - deco scissors

I always cringe when I find my kids in my craft room unattended, especially when they have gotten into my stash of patterned paper. They always seem to use my favorite kind, but if they make me something with it, I will have it around to look at forever. At least someone is putting it to good use!

And in this case, I got to make something with it, too.

K 

OLW in Two Minutes

I almost cried when I read that Susan was going to take a break from her OLW challenges on her Simplicity blog.  Seems popularity is running it's course with her, and she had to cut back somewhere.  I wish I had that problem!  heehee!  But then Jennifer Styles stepped up to the plate and is going to be posting the challenges for a while.  I'm grateful for her!  Thanks, Jennifer!

The challenge this week is to make a one layer winter holiday card without using white, cream, red, or green for the base.  When I first read it, all possibilities went out the window.

Then I had an idea.

This is possibly the fastest card I have ever made.  I think it took me longer to ink up my new silver Stazon pad than it did to make the card!  Even the simplest card I make can take me a while before I get it 'right'.  This just happened, and I love the result!

Isn't it cute that Dasher is looking at the Merry Christmas aimed right for his back end?  I think he's thinking "I'd better get out of here!"

After I lined up the image and sentiment on my background-sized acrylic block, I inked them both with silver Stazon, and presto!  It was almost done.  It still looked a little flat to me, so I sprayed some sparkle shimmer spritz over it, and that was just what it needed.  That stuff has to be my favorite new product.  I find myself reaching for it very frequently.

Supplies used:
Stamps - Dasher, Christmas Greetings
Paper - Concord Crush
Ink - silver Stazon
Accessories - sparkle Shimmer Spritz

What is your favorite new product?

K

ETA - Silver and gold Stazon inks are a good alternative to embossing when using on dark cardstock.  The embossing buddy leaves a little powder behind that I can never seem to get rid of, and no matter how careful I am about removing any errant flakes of EP before heating, there are always a few that show up after the image is embossed that 'ruin' the card for me.  Stazon eliminates all this and is still fairly shiny.  I will still use EP on light colored card stock, but for darker colors, I will always use Stazon for metallic images.

K