One crazy cat

I had good intentions of making Halloween cards this year, and I even bought a new Halloween-themed stamp set. But as so often seems to happen, the days got away from me, and the only Halloween cards I sent out were a few I made last year.

I did actually start a Halloween card this year, but with a little revision I was able to turn it into a birthday card instead:

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Purr-fect Halloween (Close to My Heart)
Paper: Crushed Curry, Tangerine Tango card stock; watercolor paper (Strathmore); Brights Designer Series Paper (DSP) Patterns Stack
Ink: Crushed Curry (marker and pad), Tangerine Tango (pad), Rich Razzleberry (marker and pad), Old Olive (marker and pad), Smoky Slate (pad), Jet Black StazOn
Accessories: Fuschia sequins (unknown), Rich Razzleberry cotton ribbon, Corner Chomper (We R Memory Keepers), Aqua Painter, Glue Dots, Dimensionals

I watercolored the cat, banner and hat using an Aqua Painter and ink pads. Then I used coordinating markers to add darker details to the hat and banner. (For the Halloween version, I was going to use a mask and a witch's hat instead.)

I cut out the hat and banner and used Glue Dots to add them to the cat. To finish the panel, I rounded the corners, painted a light shadow below the cat, and added three sequins.

I mounted the focal image on piece of Tangerine Tango card stock. For the card base I used a piece of Crushed Curry card stock and added a piece of Old Olive DSP to the bottom of the card front. I adhered a piece of Rich Razzleberry ribbon along the top of the DSP and then used Dimensionals to add the focal panel. Inside I stamped "You're one crazy cat" and "Happy birthday."

I'm not crazy about this color combo, but I'm glad I was able to use my new stamp set and "re-purpose" a Halloween card. Thanks for stopping by!

Save those scraps!

After making all the cards I shared in my last post, I had quite a few scraps of patterned paper left over. Instead of tossing them, I used them to make a quick background for this card:

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Paper: Seasons - Summer 6" x 6" paper (Authentique Paper), Very Vanilla card stock
Accessories: Butterflies Thinlits dies, burlap ribbon, gold sequins

I love this simple card, and I think it would be a great design for a card set. With the butterfly die-cut, it's a little more feminine than the previous cards using these papers, but it's still not too frilly and frou frou.

Whew! I just barely got my second blog post in for the week. It's been another busy one. The latest news is that we adopted two cats from a rescue organization today. I hope to have pictures to share soon -- they're both pretty shy and have been hiding most of the day.

Thanks for stopping by!

Not my usual style

One of the projects I worked on during my recent crat weekend was designing cards using a set of blueprint-style Tim Holtz stamps and a pack of 6" x 6" patterned paper that I bought ages ago as part of a kit from a paper-crafting store. The kit came with instructions for three small cards, so I started with those designs and transformed them into full-size A2 cards. It was a bit of a struggle because they aren't my usual style, but I think they turned out pretty well.

Here are the supplies I used for all of the cards (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Blueprint stamps - clock, gears, bulb (Tim Holtz), Secretary Pool (Artistic Outpost), Stylized Birthday, Party with Cake
Paper: Seasons - Summer 6" x 6" paper (Authentique Paper); Basic Black, Island Indigo, Tip Top Taupe card stock
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Basic Black marker, Stardust Gelly Roll pen (Sakura)
Accessories: Silver 3mm nail head stickers (Mark Richards), metallic glitter tape, burlap ribbon, vintage newsprint washi tape (unknown), screw brads (Making Memories), Corner Chomper (We Are Memory Keepers), Dimensionals

For the focal images on the first two cards, I stamped the clock image twice: once on a piece of blue paper from the pack and once on a piece with a very small newsprint. I cut out the clock face from the newsprint clock and glued it to the center of the first clock. I added a silver nail head in the center and colored in the rest of the image with a Stardust Gelly Roll pen to add sparkle.

I wanted to focus on making birthday cards, so I tried to think of sentiments that worked with the images. For these two cards, I decided on the word "time." For the first card I cut out individual letters to spell out "party time," and for the second card I used just part of sentiment stamp ("It's time to celebrate with cake").

For both cards I used a marker to doodle a border around the background paper and added a few scattered nail head stickers.

On the second card I used the Gelly Roll pen to color in the letters in the first part of the sentiment. I love the extra sparkle (see the close-up photo below).

The light bulb image for the next two cards was also stamped twice and paper pieced, in this case with the small newsprint for the whole image and a yellow paper for the top part of the bulb. I used the Gelly Roll pen to trace the filament part of the image and the base of the bulb.

The sentiment was a lot more challenging for these cards. I finally decided to use a set of small alphabet stamps to spell out a sentiment: "Have a brilliant day" for the first card and "Have a brilliant birthday" for the second. I used black ink for all of the words except "brilliant," which I stamped in yellow to play off the yellow light bulb.

For the third stamp, the gears, I used the image for the background instead of the focal piece. I stamped the gears several times on a piece of patterned paper, turning the stamp to vary the orientation of the image. Then I randomly colored in some of the gears with the Gelly Roll pen.

I used the stamped paper on the bottom half of the card and then added a strip of yellow paper and a piece of washi tape. I stamped a "Happy Birthday" greeting on a piece of the small newsprint paper, rounded two of the corners, drew a border with the Gelly Roll pen (see the close-up photo below) and matted it with a piece of blue paper. I attached the focal image to the card base with Dimensionals and added a screw brad in the lower right corner.

I liked this card design so much that I made two of the same layout. The only change I made on the second card was that I used the Gelly Roll pen to trace over the sentiment instead of drawing a border.

All in all, I think these are fun, out-of-the-ordinary masculine cards that made me stretch my creativity. Thanks for stopping by!

What a week!

I know this is my only blog post for the week, but it's been a busy one. It started with craft weekend, then there was a birthday celebration for my brother, an evening volunteer event at a local school, and a dinner out with a good friend. That's all on top of eight straight days of work (five down, three to go). Whew! I'm actually pretty pleased I'm getting this post done.

Craft weekend was, as always, great fun, and I was especially productive this year. I had an impossible time trying to decide what projects to work on, so I finally settled on completing some kits. I packed five Stampin' Up! kits -- two Paper Pumpkin, Oh Happy Day, Designer Tin of Cards and Stitched with Cheer -- and finished all of them! That's a total of seventy cards. Not too shabby, right? And they were needed, too. I've almost depleted my stash of birthday cards, and I need to start a collection of cards to give to my grandma, too.

I don't know yet if I'll post any of those cards on my blog since I mostly followed the kit instructions while making them. But I did also make a few of "my own" cards, including this one, which uses several leftover kit pieces.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Paper: Mint Macaron card base (from Paper Pumpkin kit), floral pattern strip and striped banner pieces (from Oh Happy Day kit), Basic Black card stock, Wood designer 6" x 6" card stock paper (My Mind's Eye)
Accessories: Butterflies Thinlits dies, metallic foil doilies, gold sequins (The Makery - Hazel & Ruby), yellow and white twine (from Oh Happy Day kit), Glue Dots

I really like how this card turned out with the combination of "shabby" from the weathered wood patterned paper and shiny from the sequins and doily. And I have to thank my friend Lisa for the idea to add a butterfly, because I could not figure out what to use as the focal image. I was thinking about a large die-cut flower, but the butterfly is perfect because it leaves more of the patterned paper visible.

That's it from me this week. Thanks for stopping by!

Falling for plaid

I'm back to fall cards, at least for today. This fun card features a few plaid trees:

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Fall Colors (Endless Creations)
Paper: Sahara Sand, Early Espresso, Chocolate Chip, Daffodil Delight card stock; Perfectly Plaid Fall petite paper pack (Lawn Fawn)
Ink: Early Espresso
Accessories: Build-a-Scene Trees dies, Leaves die, and Sun and Clouds dies (Taylored Expressions); linen thread; Season of Style washi tape; Wink of Stella clear glitter brush pen; Mono Multi liquid glue; Dimensionals

Aren't they fun? I love the colors in this paper pack, and I think the plaid patterns are great for treetops. I cut six tree trunks from two different shades of brown card stock and adhered them across a Sahara Sand card base. The third tree from the left is adhered with Dimensionals; the others are glued down flat. Then I added the treetops, again attaching one with Dimensionals.

I wanted a subtle border along the bottom of the card, so I used a strip of Sahara Sand washi tape. I also added a die-cut sun in the upper right corner -- clear, sunny fall days are the best! -- and a linen thread bow on one of the trees.

Inside the card I stamped a sentiment that goes perfectly with the colorful trees. I also added a few tiny leaves die cut from scraps of the plaid paper.

I'm working on another card that uses the tree dies in an unexpected way, but I haven't found the right layout yet. Here's hoping I'll have that one finished soon!



Thanks for stopping by!